


A Secret Double Life

by Jarate_Man



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Obsession, Obsessive Behavior, Panic Attacks, Pining, Stalking, but it's fine they still love each other, debating if i should write them getting together or if i should leave that to the reader, every rendition of agent stone is gonna have the first name daniel, is it pining if i don't actually write about them getting together?, robotnik knows about your secret stone, robotnik may seem a bit ooc, stone is a youtuber au, stone is soft boi and i love him for it, stone too, you can't hide from him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23388610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jarate_Man/pseuds/Jarate_Man
Summary: Robotnik, looking for something to drive away a nagging boredom he's had for a while, takes to YouTube to find something interesting. Along the way, he discovers something about Agent Stone that shocks him.~Updated the tags (which are the last three) and the rating. Changes relate to Chapter 8. Make sure to read the chapter notes for it to know what to read
Relationships: Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik & Agent Stone, Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik/Agent Stone
Comments: 159
Kudos: 213





	1. An Interesting Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Jesus Christ, do I always have to make my summaries sound so dramatic? This is practically the written version of an Indian soap opera. (If any of you guys are Indian, I'm sorry for the joke. But not gonna lie, the editing for those soap operas be wildin' fam.)
> 
> But anyway, hi everyone! Welcome to a new (and shorter) series staring two boys that I can't stop writing about. I had the thought of writing this a little while ago, but now I'm finally putting it to fruition. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I'll see you soon with a new chapter! Bye!~

It should be said that Dr. Ivo Robotnik is a misanthrope.

It’s not that big of a surprise. If anyone has known someone like Dr. Robotnik (i.e. intelligent, witty, arrogant) they would know right off the bat that they  _ absolutely  _ **_hate_ ** people. A sense of massive superiority is instilled in them practically at birth as they trump everyone in their path in whatever they set their mind to. As the king of the misanthropes, it’s also not surprising that the great doctor would sometimes get bored in the middle of assignments.

Usually, when something of this sort happens, he would tinker around with one of his machines or rack his brain in an attempt to get new ideas for machines he hasn’t thought of yet. However, when he rarely became  _ so  _ bored that even  _ these  _ things couldn’t entertain him, he would go to something that many others usually go to.

YouTube.

Yes, even the brightest mind in the whole world sometimes watches others on a platform that contains such a large number of Neanderthals it amazed him. He scrolled through his recommended page, wondering when this unneeded weariness would pass. He breathed out an annoyed sigh and searched up “Portal Let’s Plays”, making sure he had typed out the saying in a grammatically correct fashion.

Portal, a game he had played a hundred times over, was still something that intrigued him in the fact that it revealed how an individual thinks. How long did it take someone to get to the next level? How far would they be in the game before they realized something was amiss? It was an interesting lesson in psychology, a field that he had been into at one point in his life but eventually fell in the shadows as his love for robotics trumped every other field of fascination into the ground.

Robotnik scrolled down the search page, passing all the other videos that didn’t seem attractive enough for him to watch. He had been looking for something to entertain him, yet, like always, he was disappointed. That was until he came across one specific video.

It was basic in terms of the structure of the thumbnail. A random screenshot of the video with an intense blur around the “face” of GLaDOS. “Oh no!” was plastered on top of the photo in a bold text. The most surprising thing was the fact it was uploaded only a couple hours ago.

Robotnik, interest peaked, clicked on the video and watched as it filled up his main monitor. The voice of the man in the video flooded from the headphones the doctor wore as his eyes grew wide at the realization of who had uploaded the video.

_ Agent Stone has a YOUTUBE CHANNEL? _

“Hia, pebbles, it’s Stoney!” Stone chirped. “Sorry it’s taken me so long to upload a video. I’ve been real busy with work and stuff.”

The look of shock on the doctor’s face grew into one of wonder and respect as the idea of Stone having a YouTube channel that  _ the  _ Dr. Robotnik didn’t know about  _ until now  _ filtered through the man’s brain.

“I’m pretty sure you have been waiting for the ending of this series, as have I,” Stone continued. “I was reading some of your comments,” the camera was now zoomed into the agent’s face. “I don’t appreciate the spoilers,” his bass-boosted voice echoed in the headphones. The camera and the mic quality returned to normal when Stone said, “And some of you have been giving me a couple of tips on how to get through some of the next levels. So if you’re one of those people, thank you!” He winked at the camera and Robotnik felt his breath hitch at the action.

“Now!” Stone proclaimed, “It’s time to beat this game once and for all.”

Robotnik paused the video, holding his head in his heads as he registered everything he had learned so far. 

  1. Agent Stone was a YouTuber.
  2. He had been putting videos out since (Robotnik clicked on his icon and checked his about section) 2013!?
  3. He had gained a pretty moderate following. He had gained around 930,000 subscribers in the time he had been uploading. 
  4. He had a nickname which was so simple he laughed. The agent’s nickname was Stoney, and as a sort of play on the central theme of rocks, he called his subscribers “pebbles”.
  5. Stone played Portal!



Robotnik looked up at the monitor, still in disbelief. How had it taken him only  _ now  _ to discover this? He was Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a man who perfected drone tech in only a year and a half! How had he not discovered that  _ his agent for  _ **_3 years now_ ** _ had a  _ **_YouTube channel?!_ **

The doctor considered calling the man (who had the day off today), although he decided against it. A part of his didn’t  _ want  _ Agent Stone to realize his discovery. A part of him wanted to keep this secret and hide it for as long as possible.

After a few seconds of mental deliberation, Robotnik came to a conclusion.  _ I’ll keep this secret for now. If Stone becomes too unruly, I’ll subtly mention this whole escapade and watch as he crumbles down as he comes to terms with the fact that  _ **_I_ ** _ know his little private career. _

Robotnik clicked on the “Playlists” tab and searched for the Portal playlist. He located it quickly as it was the first playlist that popped up. He clicked on it and was bombarded with an obnoxious ad about a car brand. He immediately clicked “Skip Ad” and was brought to the first video.

“Hia, pebbles, it’s Stoney!” Stone cheerfully said. “I know I said that I was going to play Don’t Starve Together with you guys, but my PlayStation isn’t working at the moment for whatever reason. So, I’ve instead decided to play Portal! A game that I bought one Christmas morning and have never touched since!”

A smile grew on his face as he stared into the camera. “I know that some of you are going to complain that I’m playing a game that’s older than your grandma, but you know what?” He reached behind the camera and manually zoomed it onto his face. “Shut your goddamn mouth, you plebeian.” He unzoomed the camera and shifted in his seat. 

Stone adjusted his grey long-sleeve shirt as he said, “Now, let’s get this bread, bois!”

The video was acceptable. The editing captivated Robotnik throughout the video, even if it wasn’t the best editing he's seen. The camera quality was amazing, most likely because of the fact that the secret agent was paid handsomely for being Robotnik’s assistant. The mic quality was also excellent, letting the doctor hear all of the dips and rises of Stone’s voice as he talked. Stone’s actions in the video, above all else, was what Robotnik admired. It wasn’t forced at all; it felt natural, almost like he was immersed in the game and the recording of it was an afterthought.

Stone’s energy seemed to have bled through the monitor and, as the video ended, left the man sitting down in a chipper mood. Robotnik leaped up from his chair and spun around happily. He was now free from his boredom and had found a way to potentially blackmail Stone in the future! He gracefully jumped onto the raised platform of his lab and set it to a slow, jazzy beat. It echoed in empty lab as Robotnik let his emotions flow through his body. Feelings were his energy and dancing to music was the outlet.

A million thoughts raced through the man's head but they were all pushed aside as Robotnik grabbed a nearby pole and did his signature hip thrusts. He laughed gleefully as his body was possessed by the music blaring out of his speakers. The flashing lights left him with a feeling of weightlessness and provided the doctor with a pleasant feeling of dizziness. He sauntered over to his chair and collapsed into it as the song ended.

He paused the song that was about to play next and stared back at the screen in front of him. It still held the image of Stone as he was talking to the audience. A strange feeling of comfort surrounded the genius as he scrolled down to the comments. He didn’t read any of them; instead, he began to write his own.

It was a simple little message from an anonymous person on the internet, one who was simply called “I R”. There was nothing there on the YouTube channel of Robotnik’s that would tie him to this comment, yet it still gave him a rush as he hurriedly typed out his comment. When he was done, Robotnik looked over it, ensuring that everything was punctual and grammatically correct.

“I really enjoyed watching your video. Everything about it, from the camera angle to the editing to the acoustics was astounding. I hope to see more of your videos in my free time (if I can find time in my inherently chaotic schedule). Congratulations on earning yourself a new viewer. Perhaps in time, you may earn my subscription.”

_ Perfect _ , the man thought as his cursor hovered over the “Comment” button. Something made him stop, however. It was the fact that maybe, just maybe, Stone would discover that it was  _ him _ . Stone, even if the doctor was reluctant to admit it out loud, wasn’t the fool that Robotnik constantly professed he was. He had shown himself to be highly observant and very competent when he tagged along on an investigation of a cult in Northern Denmark. It wouldn’t take him long to figure out his boss had watched one of his YouTube videos, especially with the telltale writing style and the slight condescending tone the comment carried.

_ Perhaps if I chalk this up to an experiment, my subconscious will let me rest about this infernal feeling of fear that has somehow taken residence in my body. _

That’s just what he did. He opened a file on another one of his holographic screens and labeled it “Agent Stone” in Russian. Even if he knew that his assistant wouldn’t  _ dare  _ touch his console, he still didn’t want to leave any hint of his new “experiment” on him. What the experiment would consist of, he didn’t know as of yet. All he did right then was post his comment, copy and paste Stone’s channel link into the file, and start playing the next video in the Postal playlist.

“Hia, pebbles, it’s Stoney!” The introduction played in the background as Robotnik focused on typing up a summary of the channel, how he discovered it, and why he wanted to conduct this experiment.

“-ove you all.”

Robotnik stopped his typing and switched over the screen that played Stone’s video. He paused the video, going back a couple seconds before he played it again.

“Thank you all so much for getting me to 500,000 subscribers!” Stone said gratefully. “Every single one of you has gotten me to this amazing milestone and I can  **not** thank you enough for getting me here.” Stone placed his hands over his heart, a smile on his face and the faint sight of tears forming in his eyes. "From the bottom of my heart, I say ‘Thank you,  **so** much’! I love you all.”

Robotnik’s heart felt like it skipped a beat when he heard that. He shook his head, growling at himself for thinking that Stone said that to him.

_ I don’t need some ignorant halfwit to show me some stupid forms of “affection” to live my best life. Why would I even consider that in the first place? Human emotions are  _ **_absolutely_ ** _ revolting and are best left to the  _ **_disgusting_ ** _ examples of the homo sapien race. _

Even so, he couldn’t shake the smile that formed on his face when he played that section again, nor could he help staring into the gentle eyes of his agent as he played the doctor’s favorite game.


	2. A Mug of Tea Makes Your Troubles Disappear (Hopefully)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robotnik subscribes to Stone and has an existential crisis about his life choices. The genius also reminisces about a mug that the agent gave him for his birthday and catches some feels in both the memory and in real time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus Christ, I uploaded the chapter and I didn't even notice that I forgot to put a title, a summary, or one of my signature chapter notes.
> 
> I'm so sleep deprived rn, man. Why am I like this? :')
> 
> Anyway, I just wanna mention that the amount of chapters for this story may become longer if I feel like I should write more about this AU. So if you see it extend and you're confused about it, that's why.
> 
> Well, that's all I really had to say. I hope you enjoy this chapter. See y'll later 😎

Robotnik, as sneaky and as crafty as ever, had somehow managed to hide the fact he had been watching Stone’s channel for a year.

 _A year_.

Never in his lifetime did the doctor think he would ever comment so much on someone’s YouTube channel. Every upload Stone made on his channel, Robotnik would be on edge until he had a few minutes alone to watch it in its entirety. Of course, he knew that he could just watch it in segments instead of agonizing over it until the end of the day, but it never made Robotnik happy to watch _just_ a portion of it.

Robotnik was leaning back on his chair as he opened his bookmark for Stone’s channel. He hadn’t uploaded anything recently, yet it never hurt to check in the doctor’s opinion. He scrolled down to the most recent video that he uploaded, which had been a Shadow of the Colossus let’s play. Even if Robotnik wasn’t a fan of games in that genre, there was something about Stone’s videos that _made_ him a fan of it, albeit a reluctant one.

“Hia pebbles, it’s Stoney!” both men said in synchrony, although one said it under his breath and the other said it eagerly under the view of a camera.

“Today I’m gonna be playing some Shadow of the Colossus,” Stone said joyfully, “and let me just say that I’m _very_ excited to be playing this game! I’ve always wanted to play this remaster, but I’ve never had enough time to.”

A pang shot through Robotnik’s heart. He always hated hearing that in the videos Stone uploaded. He knew that he gave the agent extra work that wasn’t always necessary, yet he couldn’t stop himself from overloading Stone in work that he believed to be too trivial for him to put any energy into.

“I hope you pebs forgive me if I’m not good at first,” Stone apologized. “I’m really trying, you know?”

Robotnik felt himself nod unconsciously before he got up. He transferred the video from his main holoscreen onto the one that his wrist piece held. The video popped up on his wrist as he walked over to his miniature kitchen. He grabbed a box that contained lemon balm tea bags. Whenever he would watch Stone, he wanted to be as relaxed and as stress-free as possible so he could fully enjoy the video. Besides, he never attempted to make the coffee that Agent Stone made. (It never tasted the same whenever he made it, for some reason.)

Stone's melodious voice flowed into the doctor’s ears and for a brief second, he would have gone to the Pentagon right at that moment and claim that Agent Stone was the key to world peace. He opened his cupboard, grabbed his kettle, poured a bottle of distilled water in it, placed it on the stove, and turned it on. He grabbed his favorite mug and stared at it fondly.

It had been gifted to him by the agent himself. It had been his birthday and like every year before, he wanted to gloss over that day without giving it much thought. He had ordered the agent to get him a cup of coffee since he slept at 4 and woke up at 6 in the morning. He collapsed into his chair as he could hear the shuffling of Stone’s feet. He had placed one of his hands over his eyes while the other leaned the chair back slightly.

“Here you go,” Stone said softly. He knew how irritable the doctor was when he was tired, so he was very cautious as he passed the mug over to Robotnik.

Robotnik hurriedly sat up in his seat and drank the coffee. He hummed pleasantly as he closed his eyes. _Delicious as always_ , he thought. He opened his eyes and that was when he noticed it.

“Agent Stone?”

“Yes, Doctor?” Stone was standing still next to his boss. He held his breath, waiting to see his reaction.

“This mug,” Robotnik said slowly, “isn’t the one I asked you to use.”

He twisted the mug around, observing how a thin red line of paint wrapped around the top of the black mug. A similar red line was on the bottom. It was very simple, yet it had an elegant flair to it that Robotnik admired.

“I know, sir,” Stone replied hesitantly. “But I just wanted to give something to you.”

Robotnik placed the mug gently onto the console before he quickly spun around in his chair. He stood up furiously, eyelid twitching from both the anger boiling inside of him and the caffeine that was now coursing through his veins. 

“Pin yourself to the wall,” he ordered, his voice eerily calm. Stone placed his hand on his chest and backed himself up until his back hit the cold metal of the RV. Robotnik slammed his hand next to the head of his assistant, causing the man to jump slightly.

“You think I need your charity?” Robotnik roared. “Do you believe that giving me a _mug_ is going to get you in my good books?”

“No, sir,” Stone replied. “I一”

“I am _insulted_ that you thought _for a_ **_second_ ** that a **mug** would make me forget about how _useless_ you are and how much **space** you unnecessarily take up. Tell me, _Agent Stone_ ,” Robotnik hissed, “why did you give me this mug?”

“It’s your birthday, sir,” Stone responded meekly. “I just thought you might enjoy having a present this year.” 

Robotnik opened his mouth to shout at Stone some more before he stopped himself. His mind processed what the agent said as he stared at the man in front of him. A blush spread on the doctor’s cheeks as he slowly lifted himself off of the wall. He finally closed his mouth and lifted his eyes to meet those of his assistant’s. They held a bit of confusion in them, as well as some sorrow.

“Stone, I’m…” Robotnik paused, lifting his hand to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly. “I didn’t realize…”

“I know, sir,” Stone said gently. He smiled softly at the man, causing Robotnik’s heart to skip a beat. The doctor’s eyes widened as he turned his head away. He stalked back to his chair and sat down in it. He was still in the line of sight of Agent Stone, which gave him the perfect chance to see the genius cross his arms like an angry toddler. He chuckled softly, drawing the attention of Robotnik once more.

“You can release yourself from the wall, Stone,” Robotnik said tenderly. “I appreciate the gift.” He flashed the agent a warm smile, freezing Stone in his place. He felt a grin steadily grow on his face as he walked over to the doctor.

“I’m glad you do.”

The harsh whistling of the kettle drew Robotnik out of his memory and back into reality. He placed a tea bag in his mug, picked up the kettle and began to pour water in it when a loud scream startled him. He looked around for the source of the scream when he heard it again. It was coming from the headphones and that’s when Robotnik remembered he had Stone’s video playing. He paused it, opting to have a few seconds of silence rather than accidentally burning himself. He watched as the tea bag expanded in his mug. He grabbed a bottle of honey and a spoon and walked back over to his chair.

Robotnik sat down with a sigh as he transferred the video onto his main screen. He waved his hand and observed with a smile as the video rewound itself back to the intro. _Although I have already seen this, I still want to experience everything all at once. It’s better this way._

“Hia guys, it’s Stoney!” Stone chippered. Robotnik leaned back in his chair, threw the tea bag in the trash and poured some honey in the cup. He picked up his spoon and mixed in the golden liquid into his tea. He watched the video, figuring out that the screams he heard were yells of excitement as Stone pumped himself up at the beginning of the cutscene. They watched in hushed anticipation as the cutscene played out. When it was over, Stone turned his head to the camera. A wide smile was on his face as a few tears fell down his face.

“This is amazing,” Stone whispered. “I can’t believe I’m playing it. I’m _finally_ playing it.”

Just like the first time he watched the video, Robotnik stood up and reached out to wipe the tears off of his agent’s face. It was something he didn’t think of, he just did it out of instinct. He heard the soft _bang_ of his chair as it hit the wall of his lab. Robotnik snarled, both at himself for doing something so absurd and at the chair for distracting him.

“I’m sorry, guys,” Stone said while wiping his eyes. “It’s just…” He sighed as he chose his next words carefully. “I used to play this game when I was younger, when it came out on the PlayStation 2. Me and my brother used to spend _hours_ figuring out how to defeat one of the Colossi until my mom had to drag us over to the table so we could eat out dinner.”

Stone finished wiping his face of tear marks while Robotnik grabbed his chair roughly and rolled it back to his console. He sat down again and aggressively drank his tea as Stone began to move around in the game. As he watched the video, a tender smile graced Robotnik’s face as his eyes, usually hardened and cold as ice, melted into a warm, soothing ocean.

At the end of the video, Robotnik sighed happily. He felt fully at peace with himself and the world as he scrolled down the page. His gaze landed on the bright red button labeled “Subscribe.” With some deliberation, Robotnik hovered his cursor over it and clicked it. The button turned a dark grey against the near-black background. His heart raced as he stood up, shoving his chair against the wall once more.

“Why?” he screamed. His body moved sporadically as he attempted to process what he just did. He was stomping up and down his hallway, moving his upper body dramatically up and down as he grabbed at his hair. “Why did I do that?”

 _If he didn’t notice you_ **_then_** _, he’ll_ **_definitely_ ** _notice you_ **_now_** _._

“I know that!” he hissed at the voice in his head. He squatted down in front of his prototype and groaned loudly. He stood up and aggressively marched back to his console. He rewound the video until it landed on Stone’s face. He stared at those innocent chocolate-colored eyes and sighed gently. A smile fell on his face as he continued to gaze upon his agent’s face.

“You should be happy, Stone,” he mumbled. “You’re the only person on this website worthy of my subscription.”

He closed the tab and closed down the console. He yawned as he began to tidy up his lab of the small mess he created. After he was finished, he checked the time and was shocked to discover it was already 2 in the morning.

 _I should sleep here today_ , he thought. _It’ll just be a waste of time to drive to the hotel and only get about 2 hours of sleep just to drive_ **_back_ ** _here._

Robotnik waved his hand over a secret compartment in his lab and out came a pillow and a blanket on a platform. He grabbed both and made a makeshift bed on his chair. He settled himself down in the chair and thought nothing of his new YouTube subscription and what chaos was to follow.

It felt like only minutes had passed when he felt the gentle tap of a finger on his shoulder.

“Doctor?” Stone whispered. “Is everything alright?”

Robotnik mumbled incoherently as he shifted around on his chair. Stone smiled down at his boss as he straightened up.

“One latte coming right up, sir,” Stone murmured cheerfully before he turned around and looked for the mug he gave his boss. When he couldn’t find it, he decided to look in the dishwasher. Sure enough, there it was. Stone carefully got the mug out and smiled at it.

 _Glad to see he’s still using it_. Stone began Robotnik’s ritual coffee routine as he clocked in. He finished making the latte in no time as years of practice taught him how to make it as fast as humanly possible. A groan caught the agent’s attention as he looked in the doctor’s direction.

 _He must have finally woken up after the smell of the coffee_ , Stone thought as he strolled over to Robotnik with a slight spring to his step.

“Here you are, Doctor,” he chirped. Robotnik took the mug with a grateful nod and sipped it slowly.

“Do you want me to put those away for you?” Stone pointed at the pillow and the blanket that still covered the exhausted genius.

“Yes,” Robotnik replied simply as he untangled himself from the blanket. He stood by his console, leaning on it slightly as he watched his assistant put his stuff away.

“You’re awfully chipper today,” the doctor commented. “Has something exciting happened in your life, Agent Stone?”

Stone’s face fell from one of pure joy to one of boredom and sternness. “No, Doctor. Nothing has happened in my life. Besides, I would rather not trouble you with my life story when you have important business to attend to.”

As much as it pained him to see Stone become his usual stoic self, he responded with a bored, “I see you’ve learned not to bother me with your trivial life experiences.” He turned around and typed something into his keyboard. The next assignment flashed on the holoscreen in front of him. Both men quickly read the file; their target this time was an uprising occurring in the southern region of Bangui, a country located in between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. They were ordered to leave, effective tomorrow.

Robotnik sighed. “They _just_ won’t stop having revolts,” he muttered harshly before he began making a checklist on one of his holoscreens. He glanced back at Stone and said, “You better pack up the most necessary things you have when you get back to your house, agent. We may not return back to the United States for an extended amount of time.”

Stone smiled at the doctor. “I know, Doctor. I will.”

“Good,” Robotnik replied. “Now, go collect everything in this list and pack it up. The instructions of what to do after you’ve finished are written in blue.” He swiped the list off to the left of the screen and heard the soft chime of Stone’s tablet go off.

Stone walked over to the platform he left his tablet in. He rarely used it, so he never found a need to carry it around with him. He had asked the doctor if he was allowed to leave it in his lab and all Robotnik said in reply was, “If you somehow lose or damage it while on your job, you _will_ suffer the consequences.”

Stone picked up the tablet and was relieved to see it still had about 90% charge left. He opened it and saw the list the doctor mentioned. He read it quickly and set off to collect the necessary machines that the doctor specified he had to take with him to deal with this revolt.

Robotnik watched as his faithful henchman followed his orders to a T. He let his mind wander as he read more of the file.

 _Do you think he’s happy because you subscribed to him?_ He shook his head slightly. _No, of course, he wouldn’t be happy because of that. He doesn’t even know you have a YouTube channel!_

 _But what if he_ **_does_ ** _know?_ Robotnik paused his reading as he allowed the thought to settle into his mind. _What if he knows it’s you and he’s ecstatic about how high you deem him in terms of being a YouTuber?_

The doctor frowned as he began reading the file again. _Those are just foolish thoughts that shouldn’t be apparent at a moment like_ **_this_** _. You_ **_must_ ** _focus on the assignment at hand, not fantasize about your agent being delighted at your subtle confirmation that you enjoy him and his content._

“Doctor?” Robotnik turned around and stared at the special agent.

“Yes, Agent Stone?”

“You wrote in German again.”

Robotnik turned his attention back to the list he created and, sure enough, half of the list was written in German. “So I did,” he affirmed. He quickly translated the parts that were written in German and sent the updated list to Stone.

“There, everything should be in English now.” Robotnik took a sip of his coffee before setting the mug down. _This is going to be a long assignment_ , Robotnik thought as he watched Stone once more. Stone turned his head and flashed a confused but positive smile at the doctor. Robotnik felt his cheeks heat up as his eyes widened. He let out a huff and spun himself around back to the file. He took another sip of his coffee.

_This is going to be a long assignment indeed._


	3. The Chance of a Lifetime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robotnik and Stone are on an assignment to suppress some revolters. On the way over, Robotnik realizes what exactly his sub to Stone got him into

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ex-fucking-CUSE ME?! WHAT THE FUCK?! I WAS JUST WATCHING MY BOI LEE MAJDOUB STREAM A COUPLE HOURS AGO AND HE MENTIONED PLAYING SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS I'M
> 
> AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
> 
> I'M FUCKING PSYCHIC, MY GUYS
> 
> In all seriousness, when he said he might stream some Shadow of the Colossus, I freaking screamed
> 
> (My parents are so concerned about me, but that's the normal for them)
> 
> That's really all I have to say. Enjoy this new chapter :)

The private jet landed in a secluded section of the nearby woods. Robotnik stood nonchalantly in front of his luggage while Agent Stone was as stiff as a board while he stood next to the acclaimed genius. 

The doctor’s eyes lazily followed the aircraft as it settled down in the grass before them. He waited impatiently for the doors to open so he could finally give his feet a rest. His growing restlessness made his fingers twitch against his palm. For once he was glad he didn’t have his gloves on because if he _hadn’t_ taken them off before, he knew for a fact that this entire area and everything in a 10-mile radius would have been wiped off the face of the earth.

It took the people inside the jet around 2 minutes and 35 seconds longer to put down the steps to the jet than usual. Robotnik forced his face to hold a calm expression. He didn’t want those on board to think _he_ needed them to rush and get him on board. _They_ had to be the ones to force _this_ exemplary model of humanity onto the jet.

The door opened and Robotnik leisurely strolled towards the aircraft with Stone in tow. A couple of his backup agents (he could never remember what their names were) carried the machines the doctor would need on this assignment as well as his and Stone’s luggage.

He took his time getting up the stairs. He wanted to irk those that forced him on this boring job as much as possible. He saw only three others on the plane: Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Commander Walters, Director of National intelligence Ms. Davis, and Secretary of Defence Command Sergeant Major Johnson.

“Ah,” Robotnik drawled, opening his arms wide as he bent himself forward slightly. “If it isn’t my most _favorite_ people in the entire world. How are you doing on this _fine_ summer day?”

Commander Walters glared at the doctor and stiffly replied, “Sit down, Doctor. We have business to discuss.”

Robotnik sauntered over to the group of powerful people like he wasn’t causing a ticking time bomb to detonate faster. “My, my,” he tutted. “Someone must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

He heard a growl come from the command sergeant major and the smirk on his face, which he didn’t realize he had, grew wider as he plopped himself down on the seat closest to him. He felt Stone stand by his side after he gave orders to the other agents on where to place the equipment.

The doctor’s legs spread wide as he assumed an insouciant position. He radiated boredom and was very pleased to feel the tension in the room worsen by his actions.

“Now,” he asked apathetically, “who wants to place their bets on how many people are going to die this time around?”

A horrified gasp came from the director as she covered her mouth in shock. The commander straightened in his seat while the secretary jumped up from his seat and roared out “You monster!”

A dark chuckle escaped the genius as he crossed his legs. He looked perfectly at ease amid the small amount of chaos he created in this jet. He sat back with an amused look on his face as the secretary began to “chew him a new one” for acting in such a manner. All he needed right now was an iced coffee and a straw to drink out of and he would have had a field day in seeing the man explode with outrage as he finally realized how little Robotnik cared about “acting in an appropriate manner”.

“Why are you meeting here with me?” Robotnik interrupted. Everyone stared at him as he slowly uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. “I’ve already read the file. I’ve already made a plan on how to handle this. I’ve even made a backup plan if this goes awry.” 

He had his elbows resting on his knees as he asked them the million-dollar question: “What exactly are you planning for me?”

The three government lackeys looked at each other before Ms. Davis spoke up. “We wanted to advise you to use the _least_ amount of force as possible.”

“That doesn’t make things fun, though,” Robotnik exclaimed. He looked incredulously at the people in front of him.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s ‘fun’ or not,” Commander Walters hissed. “What _matters_ is that we attempt to calm this situation _without_ the use of violence.”

“Isn’t it counterproductive to have **_me_** do this mission, then?” Robotnik raised an eyebrow at the man. “Has your dementia finally caused you to forget that my entire _existence_ revolves around the word ‘violence’?”

The secretary squared his jaw as he spoke through gritted teeth. “Mister一”

“Doctor,” Robotnik interjected. “Doctor Robotnik.”

“ _Doctor_ Robotnik,” Johnson roared, “I don’t appreciate the attitude you’re showing us.”

“Nor do I appreciate your yelling, major,” Robotnik retorted. “Yet here we are.”

In a fit of rage, the secretary pulled out a concealed handgun and aimed it at Robotnik. As quick as lightning, Stone pulled out his gun as well. The only difference between these two actions was the fact that Johnson’s gun only pointed _towards_ Robotnik while the agent’s gun was pressed against the major’s temple.

“Ah, now _this_ is interesting,” the doctor murmured. A look of glee graced his face as he looked between the two men. Johnson looked absolutely _petrified_ with having a gun pressed against him while Agent Stone looked as composed as ever.

“You have two choices, major.” Robotnik leaned back in his seat as he chuckled humorlessly. “Either you lower your gun and I’ll forgive you for your ignorance, or you can shoot me and have your life end at the hands of my agent.”

The doctor could practically _hear_ the gears in the major’s head turn as he considered his options. He lowered his gun and returned it back into its hidden holster. After the major did that, Stone lowered his gun as well. He placed it in his holster and returned to standing next to his boss.

“You made the right choice, major.” Robotnik’s eyes glazed over the expressions his guests wore. He groaned and rolled his eyes.

“If it pleases you,” Robotnik droned, “I will attempt to do everything in my power to be as _peaceful_ as possible.”

Some shuffling was heard as the director pulled out a tape recorder. “Repeat what you said.”

“You’re not even going to ask me for permission to record me?” the doctor teased. “How _very_ unprofessional of you!”

“Repeat what you just said, Doctor Robotnik,” Ms. Davis said harshly. “If you don’t comply with us now, we have no choice but to come along with you on your mission.”

Robotnik wrinkled his nose at the woman. “Now we don’t want _that_ , now do we?” All Ms. Davis did in response was lift her eyebrow at the man. The doctor rolled his eyes and leaned close to the tape recorder.

“I, Doctor Ivo Robotnik, pledge to the United States of America and its government that on this mission (that has begun on Monday, July 15, 2019), I will do everything in my power to settle this uprising in Bangui, Africa in a nonviolent manner.”

Looking satisfied, Ms. Davis pulled her hand back before Robotnik grasped her wrist firmly. She gasped at his actions but did nothing else in fear that she might be shot.

“However,” the man continued, maintaining eye contact with the terrified woman. “If there _just so happens_ to be **absolutely** no way to settle this in a peaceful manner, I am entitled full reign of my miniature arsenal that I have conveniently brought along with me.”

Robotnik’s mustache twitched as he accentuated the following words: “Do we have an agreement?”

Commander Walters was the one to respond to him. “We'll agree to your conditions if you agree to ours.”

The doctor let go of Ms. Davis’ hand and leaned back in his chair. “I agree, then.”

“Then it’s settled,” the commander replied. All three of them stood up as the jet landed once more. It surprised the doctor since he didn’t feel the jet take off, but he didn’t allow that to show on his face.

“Ah, leaving so soon?” he teased. “The fun was only _just_ beginning.”

“We apologize for leaving so abruptly, Doctor,” responded the commander. “However, we must return back to our positions in the White House. I’m sure you understand.”

Robotnik waved a hand at them. “Of course, I understand. Now, go back to your worthless government jobs and allow _me_ to do mine.”

The lackeys walked out single file without a word to either the doctor or his assistant. They watched them walk down the steps with the eyes of a hawk. Once the door shut, Robotnik stood up and stretched.

“Talking to people like _them_ always made my day,” he remarked to his assistant. “I enjoy it _immensely_ as they squirm under my words like a worm aboveground.”

All Stone did in response was nod at the older man. Robotnik turned around and had a puzzled look on his face as he looked at his assistant.

“Stone, is everything alright?” Stone nodded once more as he let his gaze travel around the inside of the jet.

“I don’t believe that you’re telling me the truth, agent.” Robotnik stepped closer to Stone. “I’m going to give you a second chance to tell me what you are _truly_ thinking of.”

Stone glanced back at his boss and sighed. “I’m just concerned if you’re alright from the gun incident.”

Robotnik blinked at the agent before laughing. “Oh, Stone, is that all you’re worried about? I’m perfectly fine! You don’t know how many times I've been threatened. It’s gotten to the point where it’s routine for me.”

Stone still avoided the gaze of his boss’ eyes. Robotnik sighed as he patted his agent on the shoulder.

“I should mention that I appreciate the fact that you pulled your gun out at the _Secretary of Defence_.” The doctor giggled as he remembered the expression on the man's face a couple minutes prior. “That look on his face will forever be the most _amazing_ moment of this year.”

Stone glanced up at his boss and smiled gratefully. “I’m glad I was able to be of some use to you, Doctor”

Robotnik smiled at the man as he walked over to a set of chairs at the back of the plane. “Stone?”

“Doctor?” Stone questioned as he walked over to his boss.

The doctor lifted the armrests and, when he was finished, sat down. “Start writing the report summary pronto. I want you to _at least_ finish the introduction when we land.”

Stone nodded. “Of course, Doctor.” He walked over to the other side of the plane and pulled out his laptop from his bag. He sat down and began to type in his password when his boss began to speak once more.

“I also recommend that you write a plan with,” Robotnik shuddered, “‘nonviolent methods’. It’s apparent we'll need to use it for some idiotic reason.”

Stone grinned as he nodded once more. He turned his attention to his laptop and began to type up the report that they would send to the CIA or FBI or whoever assigned them this job.

The doctor got up from his seat and went over to his luggage bag. He dug out his pair of headphones and placed them snugly over his ears. He pulled out his tablet and walked back slowly to his seat as he typed in his password.

The tablet opened to a black wallpaper and the home screen. He clicked on the YouTube app he downloaded a while back and went to his subscription page. He had received a notification late last night that Stone had uploaded a video.

The new video that the agent uploaded popped up instantly on his subscription page. Eagerly, Robotnik tapped on it. The video popped up on his screen and he laid down with a sigh. _The wifi on this jet is exceptional_ , the doctor thought as the face of Stone filled his tablet screen.

“Hia pebbles, it’s Stoney! Today, I’m making a more serious video this time as I have important news to tell you.”

Stone inhaled loudly and deeply before he bellowed out, “I've reached a million subscribers!” He entered a brief laughing fit as tears of happiness rolled down his face.

“This is probably one of _the_ best days of my _entire_ **_life_**! I can _not_ thank you guys enough for getting me here, and as such, I want to give back to my community.”

The video cut briefly as Stone shifted in his seat. “I want to take 10 of my subscribers and dedicate either a stream or an entire video for them. The first five are set in stone.” The video zoomed out and Stone cupped his hands around his mouth. “Haha, funny rock joke,” he taunted at himself.

“But as I was saying, the first five subscribers are already chosen. The first three people that subscribed to me and the most recent two will be part of this event. The other five will be picked by me at a later date since I’m gonna be gone for a bit on a business trip.”

Robotnik snorted at how blatantly obvious that lie was. His random noise attracted the attention of the agent but he just ignored it.

“I am still going to mention the people that are in the first category of people. You know,” the camera zoomed into Stone’s face slightly, “the ones that subscribed to me at specific times.” 

The camera went back to normal as Stone continued. “My first ever subscribers are my sister, my brother, and someone named Mintly, so shout outs to all the OG’s I just mentioned. My newest subscribers, ironically the 999,999 subscriber and the 1 millionth subscriber, are as follows: Shut up you pebblian! and I R.”

Robotnik shot up from his comfortable seat ‘bed’ as his heart raced. _No, no, no, no, **no**! _ He paused the video and frantically ran his fingers through his hair. _How could this be?!_

“Doctor?”

Robotnik looked up at Stone as he worriedly gazed as his boss. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” the doctor replied quickly. “Everything’s fine. I just had an idea of a new machine. That’s all.”

“Really?” Stone closed his laptop and gave the man his full attention. “What does it consist of?”

 _Oh no, he’s questioning me!_ A mix of a screaming match and a debate over what the new machine would be made to do played in the doctor’s head. It only took a matter of seconds before he came up with a reasonable answer.

“Do you know of those self-driving cars that people are attempting to bring into reality?”

Stone nodded. “Well,” his boss continued, “I was imagining something similar to that and a matryoshka doll.”

“What do you mean by that, Doctor?” Stone asked, intrigued.

“Every time the vehicle, controlled by me of course, gets damaged, a smaller vehicle comes out of that form. For starters, the first form is similar to the build of a tank. When it gets destroyed, a smaller, more mobile version of the tank will be birthed from the wreckage.”

Stone’s eyes widened as he realized how revolutionary that would be. “Doctor, that’s genius!”

“Well, of course, it is!” Robotnik exclaimed. “It _is_ coming from _my lips_ , now isn’t it?”

Stone grinned giddily at his boss. “I can’t wait for you to build it in the future.”

Robotnik collapsed back onto the seats. “Neither can I.” After a few seconds of silence, the doctor lifted the tablet up and reluctantly decided to finish watching the video.

“Congratulations on those people mentioned in this video and as soon as I get back, I _will_ make another video about everyone else that’ll be chosen for this celebration.” Stone reached his hand behind him and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. 

“Sorry for the short video and how rushed it may seem. I’m leaving tomorrow so I’ve gotta start packing up soon or else I’m not gonna get done in time. Thank you guys for watching this video and again, thank you guys so much for 1 million subscribers! I gotta roll now. I’ll see you in the next video. Bye!” Stone waved at the camera before the video ended.

Robotnik placed the tablet on his chest and breathed out a sigh. _What have I gotten myself into?_ he woefully thought. _How could I have gotten myself into this mess?_

 _Well, I can’t change the past, unless I can build a time machine before Stone contacts me to play with him._ He sighed again before glancing at the agent. 

_It’s not the worst thing in the world_ , he thought. He smiled wistfully at the agent as he pondered the implications of playing a simple game with him. His smile grew brighter as he closed his eyes at the thought of hearing Stone’s laughter come, not from playing the game, but from being around Robotnik and laughing at one of his jokes.

“Nope,” he murmured to himself. “It definitely _wouldn’t_ be the worst thing in the world.”


	4. The Fateful Email

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robotnik deliberates whether or not he should respond to Stone's email and play with him. He also reminisces about the time he spent with Stone on his recent mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I'm an idiot. I accidentally wrote that Bangui is a country. It's a city in the African Central Republic, not a country settled between the ACR and the DRC. It also doesn't help that it's the goddamn capital of the ACR ( ಥ ‿ ಥ ) 
> 
> I'm gonna go and change that in a bit after I post this. It's not really that important, but I just wanna make sure that it's geographically correct. 
> 
> Also, fun fact, the Allied Democratic Forces (a group mentioned in the chapter) is real, although this entire uprising thing isn't. I just wanted something to write about, you know?
> 
> I feel like I had something else to talk about in this note.
> 
> ...
> 
> Nope, I think that might be it? Idk man, I'm just trying to survive this quarantine, alright? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Robotnik’s hand twitched as he deliberated whether he should go along through with this or if he should just bail out right now.

It had already been two days since they’ve come back from their assignment. It was fairly easy in comparison to most other assignments he had been given. When the two men stood in front of a podium that stood before the protestors, they immediately relented their violent protests in favor of listening to this strange man they’ve never seen before. As Robotnik was a hyperpolyglot, he was able to easily placate the people and promise them whatever they needed.

It hardly took a day to get them back into their regular routine again. Stone took notes of what those rioting wanted and the reason the entire uprising happened. The people were fearful of a group that had been rumored to take arms in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rebel group, called the Allied Democratic Forces (or abbreviated as ADF), had been rumored to begin their reign of terror once more. The people of Bangui were fearful that the ADF may come into _their_ city and because they were right next to the DRC, they wanted their government to take action and protect them. After months of silence from their leader, the people began to take matters into their own hands.

Robotnik had asked everyone what they wanted and everyone said the same thing: They wanted safety. They wanted to have peace of mind knowing that they wouldn’t be the next victim of this rebel group. With each person that he spoke to, the protesters had newfound respect towards the genius and his assistant. With each confirmation that he _will_ try to do whatever he could to help them and with each smile (albeit a bit forced) he gave to everyone he spoke to, the protestors grew more relaxed as they felt that their voice was _finally_ being heard. In fact, even the children who were fearfully standing by the sidelines earlier ran up and hugged the doctor.

Robotnik froze in place as he felt the tiny hands of the kids wrap around his leg. He looked down at them in disbelief that they would _dare_ touch him. Thankfully, Stone was able to get them off of him before he blew up. In his broken French, he told them that they should go back to their parents before they got worried about where they were.

Robotnik gazed up at his assistant with a gentle smile on his face. He turned back to the woman he was speaking with and held a friendly conversation with her about how they lived in their respective cities. When he finished talking to everyone and telling Stone what to write down, they went back to the hotel that was assigned to them.

The doctor flopped onto his bed and gave out a loud groan as he felt his body sink into the mattress. “It’s finally over,” he groaned out. “I don’t have to talk to anybody else today.”

Stone opened his suitcase and took out his sleepwear. The attendants at the airport had sent their belongings to the hotel, knowing that they wouldn’t have enough time to retrieve them after their speech. He hummed in response to the doctor’s words and left to go change in the bathroom.

After some mental deliberation, Robotnik got up and got his sleepwear out as well. Halfway through getting his clothes out, he heard his assistant turn on the shower and jump in.

“Save some hot water for the rest of us!” he taunted, knowing Stone’s obsession of taking extremely hot showers. He could hear his agent chuckle as he continued to shower.

It hadn’t been awkward for the two of them to sleep in the same room as they had done things like this many times before. They had been on missions together for the past 3 years and had developed a strong connection with each other. It was friendly and mutual, which was a **huge** compliment to the agent as the misanthropic doctor allowed **_him_** to be _this_ close to him.

The agent came out a few minutes later with a small towel on his head. He sat down on his bed and shook off the excess water that was left in his hair. The doctor picked up his clothes and went into the shower himself.

One short and quick shower later, the doctor walked out with a clean body and disheveled hair. He sat on the bed and pulled out his computer. “Can you send me the notes you took earlier?” he asked.

Stone, similarly on his computer, sent the notes to his boss and continued writing his report on how the mission was going. The men worked together perfectly, having a beautiful synchrony that was unmatched by any other agent the doctor unfortunately worked with. The only problem was his hair which repeatedly fell in front of his eyes as he worked.

“As soon as I get home, I’m getting a haircut,” he grumbled. Stone snorted, turning the frustration the doctor felt towards his hair onto his assistant.

“Oh, you think this is funny?” he snarled. Stone smiled before he stood up. In his hand was a hair tie that the doctor didn’t even notice he had.

“If I may speak the truth,” the agent began, moving Robotnik’s computer to the side before sitting in front of his boss, “it’s very amusing how angry you get with how your hair works.”

Robotnik growled. “You better watch your mouth, Agent Stone.” Yet the agent wasn’t listening as he ran his fingers through the doctor’s hair. Robotnik’s cheeks flushed a violent red as he felt his assistant’s hands tug out the small knots in his hair. He didn’t do anything to stop the man, which only made Stone braver as he continued.

“Yeah, you definitely need a haircut,” Stone commented as he bunched up the hair together. He scooted closer to the doctor as he sat up on his knees. He wrapped the hair tie around the loose hair while the man under him thought he might have a heart attack from how fast his heart was beating.

“There,” Stone said as he unconsciously laid his hands on the doctor’s shoulders. “That should keep your hair out of the way.” He started to move away from his boss when he felt Robotnik’s hands place themselves on his hips.

Neither man moved as they stared into each other’s eyes. Stone was very confused about the actions of the genius, as was Robotnik himself. He didn’t know what he was doing, but all he knew was that he _had_ to do this for whatever reason. On instinct, he rubbed his thumbs in circles as he tightened his grip on the agent’s hips. Stone shivered from the contact, feeling a blush start to form on his cheeks.

“Doctor?” Stone asked meekly. “Is everything alright?”

Before he was able to answer, there was a knock at the door. Their heads turned simultaneously before the agent started shifting in the other’s grasp. Robotnik let go and watched as Stone stumbled his way to the door. It was a hotel staff that carried the dinner Stone ordered while his boss was in the shower.

After they received their food, Robotnik got up from his bed, still a blushing mess. As he wondered how his agent was able to stay so calm after such an encounter, he noticed a small shake in the man’s hands as he picked up his dinner.

 _Is he … nervous?_ Robotnik thought. _Does he think I’ll take advantage of him?_

He decided not to comment on his small observation and just picked up his food and sat down. The men ate in silence until the doctor broke it.

“Why did you have a hair tie?”

Stone, who was taking a sip of his drink, snorted and began coughing. Robotnik jumped up and stood next to his assistant as he soothingly rubbed his back. When the coughing finally stopped, Stone laughed raspily.

“It’s because of my sister,” he replied. “She always said that I should carry a couple hair ties around in case my hair gets in the way.”

All the genius could do was hum in response. He was still rubbing the other’s back when he heard a sigh come out of Stone’s lips.

“That feels good,” he whispered, closing his eyes. Robotnik sucked in a breath and stopped his actions. He quickly removed his hand and stalked back to his bed. He got back to work on his computer, avoiding all eye contact with the other man. From a brief glance over to Stone, he could see his agent slumped over his computer.

“If you do a good job on this assignment,” Robotnik said slowly, “I’ll give you a gift card for a spa resort close to our lab.”

Stone looked up and flashed a smile at the doctor. “I would appreciate that very much, sir.”

Robotnik nodded and they began their work once more. They were only interrupted once when a cleaning lady walked in, believing that the room wasn’t occupied. The second that she saw them, however, she closed the door and went on to the next room. The men worked well into the night until Stone let out a small yawn.

“Are you tired?” Robotnik murmured. 

The agent shyly nodded before quickly replying, “I can continue working if you want me to, Doctor.”

“No,” Robotnik replied as he put his computer away. “I would rather not have you work if you’re tired. I would rather have a late report than a sloppy one.”

Stone nodded as he put his computer away as well. He stood up lazily and stretched. Robotnik couldn’t help sneaking a glance at the agent as his muscles flexed beneath his clothing. The doctor could feel himself blush as his eyes trailed up and down his assistant’s body. He swallowed roughly as he averted his eyes when Stone turned around to look at him.

“Goodnight, Doctor,” he said gently.

“Goodnight, agent,” Robotnik replied. Stone pulled his blanket off and took his sweet time getting into bed. (That’s what it felt like to the doctor, but in reality, Stone was quick to slip under the covers.) He turned off the bedside lamp that sat in between them, pulled the blanket over him, and in a matter of seconds, was out like a light. Robotnik got up and turned off the rest of the lights that were in use as he got into his bed as well. He let his head turn to the side until he was able to see Stone.

The faint light of the streetlamps outside flooded into the room, illuminating the agent’s sleeping body as he dreamt all his worries away. _He looks like an angel_ , Robotnik thought as the light fell onto Stone’s face. He looked peaceful, an expression that was rare on his face as his life was in constant peril ever since he started working with the genius.

A wild thought entered his mind as he gazed at his agent’s face. _Why don’t you go over to his bed and sleep next to him?_ Robotnik’s eyes widened as he turned over to face the other side of the room.

 _What a preposterous thought!_ he chided himself. _How could I even think of such a thing!? What have I turned into, an animal!?_

The doctor tossed and turned in his bed as he bullied those thoughts into submission. His mental battle took a toll on him as he finally felt exhausted enough to fall asleep. _I guess that’s one good thing about having these conflicts with one’s self_ , the doctor thought as he closed his eyes. _It leaves me with little energy to do anything else._

They stayed there for a little over a week. They met with the mayor the day after the protest and every subsequent day after. They resolved the matter fairly quickly and returned after 9 days had passed. No bloodshed, no outrage. Just simple pacifism and a few smooth words and off they went back to their homes to take the day off. Jet lag was a constant enemy of humanity, the men had learned early on.

The day after they had come back to the United States, Robotnik woke up to an email from someone, and guess who it was from?

It was Agent Stone. Not the professional email that he was given by the FBI. No, it was his YouTube account emailing him about participating in the celebration of him gaining a million subscribers. For the entire day, he avoided thinking of the email, as well as hiding his anxiety of potentially playing with Stone from the man himself. Thankfully, Stone just chalked it up to the doctor being grumpy about not using any of his machines on their mission. Robotnik was in his house right now, staring regretfully at his computer. He reread the email in front of him, feeling his hands twitch.

“Hello, I R

I know this email is very late, but I just came back from work and this was the first time I’ve had time to message anyone about this. If you’ve seen my most recent video, you’ll know that I’ve chosen you to be a part of my celebration. If not, let me just say congrats! You were my millionth subscriber!

The celebration in question, if you still don’t know, is about me getting to a million subs. I know, shocker right? That’s not what I wanted to address, however. I wanted to invite you to play a game with me. Any game of your choice. It could be horror, fantasy, whatever you want to play. Just make sure it has multiplayer so I can join ;)

If you want to do a simple video, we could do that. If you want to do a livestream, we could do that too. Just make sure to email me when you’re available so we could try and schedule when we’re able to play together. I’d love to play with the person that got me to this milestone.

I know this may seem a bit long, and I apologize for that. I just want to mention that I’ve read every single one of your comments and I really appreciate hearing all the kind words you’ve said to me. It really makes me happy knowing that I have someone as positive as you in the Pebble family. I hope I can continue to provide content that will keep you with me for as long as possible.

With much love and appreciation, 

Stoney”

Robotnik’s hands shook as he typed out his response.

“Dear Stoney, 

I’m very honored to be your millionth subscriber. I haven’t been watching you for as long as some others have, but I’m glad that I was able to be a part of this milestone you’ve recently achieved. I watched the video in question as soon as I possibly could and I must say I was very surprised at the news.”

_Oh, surprise doesn’t even cut it._

“I’m reluctant to give you a time when we can play together because my work schedule changes all the time. However, I will say that it might be best to say that you should check your email often.

In terms of the game we would play, I would want to play Portal 2. Your last Portal video was ironically the first video that introduced me to your channel. I would like to play the sequel with you, in a show of semblance. Weird, yes, but I’m very partial to the game Portal as well, so it makes sense for me to play this game with you.

Furthermore, I would rather have you record the video instead of doing a livestream. I’m very camera shy and I don’t believe it would be a good idea to talk in front of so many people. It’s taking me so much effort just to write this response to you.”

_Camera shy? You’re_ **_camera shy_** _!? You_ **_love_ ** _the attention of others!_ **_Camera shy_** _, what an idiotic excuse!_

“Thank you for choosing me to be a part of this celebration and for saying such nice things about me. I don’t deserve the praise that you’re giving me, although I will take it gratefully.

Sincerely, 

I R”

Robotnik sent the email immediately after checking for any grammatical errors. He felt like his soul died when he sent it. He sank into his chair as he stared at his computer. He groaned and rubbed his eyes as he realized how “lucky” he was for subscribing to Stone.

“Why did I do that?” he grumbled. “Why did I have to be the millionth subscriber?”

The doctor turned off his computer and dragged himself to his bed. He pulled the covers over himself and felt strangely alone. He looked over at the empty space of his bed and, for whatever reason, imagined Stone was laying there. A smile was on his face as the doctor looked at him. He looked as peaceful as he did that one night on their mission. Robotnik reached out to the man, but the illusion faded as the doctor came to terms that he wasn’t, in fact, in his bed.

Robotnik sighed, rolling over so he could stare up at the ceiling. “Stone,” he whispered. It didn’t feel right to say the agent’s last name, though. He felt an intense urge to say the agent’s _first_ name instead. He racked his brain in an attempt to remember what Stone’s first name was.

“Daniel,” he said quietly. The word filled the stiff air of his bedroom. It left a beautiful taste in the doctor’s mouth as he closed his eyes. He felt his body relax as he forced his frantic mind to rest. The name of his agent floated around in his mind, however, and as the man slept, he had a strange dream involving Stone sitting in his lap as he chanted out the doctor’s first name while also running his fingers through Robotnik’s hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're welcome for the sexual tension, by the way ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


	5. Familiar Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stone has a little chat with his siblings (and his cousin) as they play Dead by Daylight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, I caught Lee's stream in it's entirety on Saturday and HOMEBOI NOTICED ME LIKE 5 TIMES ONE THE STREAM!
> 
> AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
> 
> I can NOT tell you how much I was freaking out when he noticed me for the first time
> 
> God can smite me at this moment and I wouldn't be angry about it 😭
> 
> Also, both of Stone's sisters are named after Lee's actual sister's, Stone's brother is named Lee, and his cousin is named Aban because apparently I have no originality, whatsoever 😅

Daniel groaned as he watched his character get killed by the Hag. Laughter flooded in through his headset as Aicha finally killed him by hanging him on a nearby hook.

“I hate this game,” he grumbled as the laughter increased tenfold.

“Well, you _were_ the one that suggested this game,” Merriam teased. Daniel chose to spectate her as she waltzed right through the exit. Lee and Aban followed soon after, leaving the agent the only “survivor” with a low score.

“Aw, man!” Aicha exclaimed. “I wanted to get you guys!”

“Maybe next time,” Lee taunted. They arrived back at the home screen and, obviously, started another round. 

“Yo, you guys are gonna get _wrecked_!” Aban yelled as he chose the Doctor. The siblings weren’t able to see what he chose, but from the tone of his voice, it wasn’t good.

Daniel picked his favorite character to play: Jake Park. Not only did it embody his behavior as a secret agent, but it was also the first character he played when he got the game.

“Is everyone ready?” he asked, taking a swig of lemonade as he pressed the ‘Ready’ button. Everyone made some noise of confirmation before they were faced with a black screen. Before them appeared the offerings that they chose for this playthrough. 

2 Virgo’s Jar of Salty Lips, a Murky Reagent, and a Petrified Oak appeared before everyone. The siblings cheered at how lucky they were with the perks everyone else chose until they saw the Putrid Oak that Aban picked. Grunts of disapproval or sighs of frustration escaped their lips as Aban silently enjoyed their groveling.

The game loaded and they were placed randomly within the hospital. All the siblings groaned simultaneously at the realization that they had to be paired up in _this_ hellhole instead of another, _better_ hellhole.

“Seriously, Aban?” Lee said. All Aban did in response was giggle menacingly as he searched for the survivors. Daniel found Aicha immediately and together they crouch-walked to look for the nearest generator.

It was a relatively quiet beginning, except for the soft cursing of Lee’s as he kept messing up his skill checks.

“Why are they _always_ so close to the **beginning** of the circle?” he groaned as he failed his 6 skill check. It was a wonder that Aban hadn’t found him yet. A round of chuckles came from the others as they continued doing what they could to either survive or get said survivors.

“Lee,” Aban said in a sing-songy tone. “Guess what?”

“What?” the man squeaked as Daniel and Aicha finished their first generator. They hadn’t seen where Merriam was, which only made them think that she was either working on her own generator or helping out their brother.

“The Doctor’s in!” Aban howled as screams came from the brother’s microphone. A glance to the right told the agent that they weren’t anywhere near him or his sister. They found a generator and together they started working on it.

“How did I get away from you?” the younger brother asked breathily. A noise sounded, informing everyone both Merriam and the other pair of siblings finished their generators. Only two more generators were needed to get to the end.

The haunting music of the Doctor slowly crept into Daniel’s headset. His character stood up and began running away in a random direction, drawing the attention towards him instead of Aicha. The music became more intense as his cousin was practically on his heels with how close he was. He was somehow able to get away from him, if only for a few seconds. He got into a nearby locker and hoped that his cousin wouldn’t hear him as he hid.

“Danny,” Aban taunted. “Where are you?”

Daniel could feel his secret agent instincts kick in. He hunkered down in his chair, keeping a watchful eye out as the Doctor rushed past him. He kept his breathing even as he waited a few seconds before exiting.

“Did you get away?” Aban asked incredulously. Daniel stayed silent as he crept out of the room he was in to a conveniently nearby generator. He started working on it, focused solely on the skill checks that appeared on his screen.

An explosion sounded somewhere to his right. A frustrated groan came from his brother as he subsequently failed the next skill check as well.

“What is this?” the man screeched when the Doctor walked in front of Daniel’s room. He thankfully didn’t notice the agent and just continued to where Lee was. One yell later, Daniel could see both his brother and his cousin run in front of his room, again ignoring his efforts to repair the generator.

“No!” Lee yelled before the sound of his character being hit filtered through Daniel’s headphones. Another hit later caused the man to fall to the ground.

“What is with this game?” he yelled before the sound of his character being hanged crept into Daniel’s ears.

“Guess I don’t have to wait long before you die!” Aban said cheerfully. A few seconds of grunts from Lee’s character passed before the cousin responded with, “You probably shouldn't try to escape next time.”

“How about you don’t camp my body next time!” the younger brother shouted as he now had to repeatedly press Space to prevent himself from dying.

Lee screamed loudly before the menacing laugh of Aban covered the terrified noises of the younger brother. It was the icon in the bottom right corner that confirmed Daniel’s thoughts that Lee was killed.

“I swear to God, whenever you play the Doc, you _always_ kill me first,” Lee complained.

“It isn’t my fault that you’re bad at this level,” their cousin taunted.

“How dare一!”

“Speaking of Doctors,” Aban interjected, “Daniel, how you holding up with that government wackjob they paired you up with?”

“He isn’t a wackjob!” Daniel hissed aggressively. He almost missed a skill check, which would have made his last minute and a half working on this specific generator meaningless.

“Geez, Danny, I was just making a joke.” Silence filled the air as Daniel (as well as Aicha and Merriam) finished repairing their generators and they were now free to exit this embodiment of hell.

“Alright, we’re in the endgame now,” Aban said as he stalked around in front of Daniel’s room, looking for the others. 

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” their cousin chanted. A few seconds later, Aban ran to the other side of the map.

“Ok, whoever is near _this_ exit is getting messed **UP**!”

Daniel sneaked out of his room and walked over to the farther of the two exits. He began to open it as he heard squeals come from his sisters as Aban, evidently, caught them at the first exit.

“Daniel, get out of here!” Merriam said. “Save yourself!”

Daniel didn’t listen, however. He stayed by the exit he just opened, waiting for the others to come. Soon enough, he saw Aicha running, with Merriam and Aban close her heels.

“Go through the exit, now!” Aicha screamed as she made it to safety. Daniel followed close after when Merriam set foot in the exit. An angry yell from Aban and a scream of joy from Merriam confirmed that all three siblings made it out alive.

“I could have had you if I hadn’t misclicked!” their cousin yelled.

“Maybe you should just get good at the game,” Lee suggested smugly.

“How about you shut your mouth, Mister ‘I Always Get Killed First’!”

“Oh, buzz off, you stupid fly.”

“Don’t you mean, ‘you stupid bee’? Cuz flies don’t really buzz, my guy.”

“Yeah, I know that, you moron. But you’re nothing like a bee, Aban.”

“Oh yeah, why’s that?”

“Bees are actually good at something, ya know?”

An explosion of laughter came from the siblings as Aban took the roast like a champ. He chuckled at his cousin and just let him slide with that comment, knowing that the next time he played the Doctor, he’d make sure Lee would eat those words.

“So,” Lee drawled, “before we get back into this game, I have a question for ol’ Danny boy.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow, even if his brother couldn’t see it. “You do realize I’m older than you, right?”

Merriam scoffed lightly. “You sure don’t act like it,” she joked casually.

“Ok,” Lee said before Daniel could say anything. “My question is this: How are you doing?”

“Oh,” Daniel replied calmly. “Is that all? I’m fine.”

“No,” Lee responded. “I mean, how’s the whole secret agent thing working out with you? Obviously, you can’t talk about it, but are you alright working there?”

“Well, uh,” Daniel scratched the back of his head. “It’s been… _interesting_ , to say the least.”

“ _Just_ interesting?” Aban questioned.

“I don’t know how much I’m legally allowed to tell you.”

“Then tell us about your boss,” Merriam suggested. “You’ve worked for him for what, 4 years? What was his name? Doctor…?”

“Robotnik.”

“Yeah, what’s he like?”

Daniel snorted. “He is the most egotistical man-child you could ever meet.”

“What do you mean?” Merriam asked.

“He hates being around people, he hates it when _anybody_ touches him, he throws tantrums _left_ and _right_ if he doesn’t get his way, he insults everyone around him because ‘Oh, I’m the smartest man in the _entire_ world, so everyone else here is **stupid** ’!”

“Why are you still working for him then?” Aban wondered.

“Because,” Daniel paused. A smile graced his face as he said, “I enjoy working with him.”

“So what you’re saying is,” Lee responded, “you’re a masochist.”

“What?” Daniel shrieked. “No!”

“Sure sounds like it, my guy,” his brother joked.

“Look, you guys wouldn’t understand.”

“Why would we want to?” Aban asked. “Dude sounds like he’s a second away from bombing us all.”

“I mean,” the agent chuckled darkly, “you aren’t wrong.”

“Are you serious?” Merriam asked instantaneously.

“He’s that dangerous?” Aban questioned.

“Dude, get the hell out of there!” Lee exclaimed.

“Shut up!” Daniel yelled at the top of his lungs. Everyone went deathly quiet.

“Look,” he growled, “you guys don’t know him like _I_ do. He’s just…misunderstood. He is one of, if not _the_ greatest people in the entire world. His tech is **_revolutionary_ ** and has stopped so many threats both to the United States and to our allies. He is my **boss** and my **employer** and _I will NOT HAVE YOU DISRESPECT HIM LIKE THIS_!”

Silence. Nobody wanted to speak after hearing such an outburst. Nobody, except for Aicha.

“Daniel,” she asked softly, “do you love him?”

Daniel stared in shock at Aicha’s character. Tears fell down his face as he struggled to hold back the _true_ feelings he had for the doctor. “I-I don’t, of course, I, what are you, I一”

“Oh, Daniel,” Merriam murmured. 

“I-I can’t,” he cried, his whole body shaking. “I couldn’t一” He stayed silent after that, trying to get himself out of this emotional breakdown he was having. After a few minutes of stunned silence, the agent was able to pull through and mumble out a quick, “I’m alright now.”

“Danny,” Lee said gently, “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t know一”

“Of course you didn’t,” Daniel snapped. He sighed as he wiped the rest of his tears off his face. “I’m sorry, Lee. It’s just…”

“Hey, you don’t have to apologize, my guy,” Aban replied quickly. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I think Daniel _would_ like to talk about it. Right, Daniel?” Merriam voiced.

“How would _you_ know what he wants?” Lee asked forcefully.

“Because being emotionally constipated sucks,” Achia retorted. “Go ahead, Daniel. We’re listening.”

Daniel ran his fingers through his hair before he spoke. “I practically fell for him the moment I saw him.” He heard a snort come from either Lee or Aban before one of the sisters shushed him.

“He was just,” he paused. “ _God_ , it was like looking at the _sun_! He was just…so **_alive_ ** and **_bright_** , how could you _not_ fall for someone like him!”

His hands started moving radically now as he spoke of Robotnik. “And he chose **_me_ ** of all people! Someone who’s barely had a _year’s_ worth of experience out in the field before being placed in front of him! No one has _ever_ lasted more than a **month** with him! And I’ve lasted **_4 years_**!”

“Damn, he sounds like an ass,” Aban muttered. Merriam hissed for him to “shut his trap” before everyone was silent once more.

“And, as crazy as this may sound,” Daniel smiled, “I think he might like me too.”

“WHAT!?” everyone yelled simultaneously.

“Not in the way you think it means!” Daniel yelled out. That seemed to calm the others down for now. “I mean, I think he might actually _care_ about me.”

“Ok, now I’m even _more_ confused,” Lee muttered.

“He’s saying that Dr. Robotnik actually thinks of him as a human being and cares for him as such and _not_ like he’s worthless scum as he treats everyone else.”

Everyone was in shock with how accurate Aicha was in her statement. She realized the awkward silence and quickly responded with, “You guys would know this if you _actually_ listened to Daniel when he talks about his job.”

“Still,” Daniel meekly said, “that’s terrifyingly accurate.”

“So,” Merriam interjected. “What are you going to do now?”

“Nothing.”

A chorus of disapproving family members filled the agent’s ears before he retorted, “Well, what am I supposed to do? Tell him I like him then get fired?”

“I would rather be fired than live my entire life in agony over someone I liked,” Merriam said.

“Besides, even if you get fired, at least you can get this off your chest,” Lee added.

“Wouldn’t getting fired be good if it turns out he likes you in the end?” Aban asked. “Then, conflict of interest doesn’t affect you in the slightest.”

“But he needs me!” Daniel proclaimed. “I’m the only person in probably his entire **_life_ **that he’s let himself get close to. I can’t do anything that might compromise what we have!”

“Daniel,” Aicha said calmly, “this is your decision. All we can say is that this is going to hurt even more if you hide it away for longer. But in the end, it’s _your_ choice. Now, what do _you_ think you should do next?”

Daniel stared at his screen. He was silent for a long time before he finally uttered out, “I’ll keep it a secret for now. I just need to plan out a way to subtly hint to him that I like him. If he doesn’t show any signs of recuperation, I’ll just figure out a way to either get rid of my feelings or I’ll just quit outright.”

Nobody said anything in response until Aicha said, “If that’s what you think is best, Daniel.”

“I hope it is,” Daniel mumbled. He stared blankly at his hands. The hands that he held behind his back when Robotnik was choosing his next assistant. The hands that brought the doctor his very first _good_ coffee he’s had in a while. The hands that passed through the doctor’s hair on their last mission and that held onto Robotnik’s shoulders as he went to get up off of him.

What had happened on that last mission that made the genius grab his hips like that? Why had Robotnik rubbed his thumbs into his hips and then just did nothing afterward? It felt like a dream when it happened, because, well, it was _Robotnik_ who was doing that. _Doctor Ivo Robotnik_ , a man so out of his league in both brains and brawn and who absolutely _hated_ physical contact of any kind _touched_ **_him_**. (Ok, maybe the part of him being better than Stone in terms of “brawn” were a little far-fetched, but the agent also counted the huge arsenal he had at his disposal, so the genius was _definitely_ stronger than Stone could _ever_ hope to be.)

The agent felt his cheeks heat up as a forbidden thought popped up in his head. _What if he likes me back? Maybe that’s why he held me like he did during the mission? Maybe he was attempting to instigate something with me but I was too flustered to realize it?_

Daniel hurriedly pushed those thoughts away. He didn’t need those thoughts right now, especially when he was with family. He couldn’t let himself get carried away with these feelings. He couldn’t let himself fall further down this rabbit hole that he dug himself when he first stood in front of the great doctor and got chosen to be his assistant.

 _No, I can’t let my emotions get the best of me_ , he chided himself. _I have to be everything the doctor wants from me. I have to be like a machine, and machines don’t have emotions! They don’t feel, they don’t cry, and they certainly don’t_ **_love_ ** _! They only do what they’re told and follow their programming. And that’s what_ **_I_ ** _have to do, if not for Robotnik, then for my own sanity._

“Daniel!”

The man jumped when he heard his name called.

“I hate to be _that guy_ ,” Lee said, “but do you think we can get back to the game? I _really_ have to get back at Aban for killing me last round.”

Daniel stayed silent for a couple more seconds before he laughed. “Yeah,” he responded contently. “We can continue playing.”

“Aw, hell yeah!” the younger brother exclaimed. “Aban, I am _so_ gonna own you!”

“I’d like to see you try!” their cousin retorted, initiating another argument with Lee as they debated who was going to get ‘owned’ next round.

“Daniel?” Aicha asked quietly. “Are you ok?”

Daniel listened to the cacophony of noise blasting through his headphones as the two other men started screaming at each other with Merriam playing mediator and trying (but failing) to calm the other two down.

“Yeah,” he said after a long time, his heart being locked up in its iron cage once more. “I’m ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, Daniel! I keep doing things like this to you. Forgive me, please! I love you! >.<
> 
> Also, can we just talk about how Aicha is such a supportive sister, both in this chapter and in real life. I wish she could either adopt me or be my sister. Either way, Aicha is amazing and I love her.


	6. I'm Gonna Do What's Called a Pro-Gamer Move

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robotnik and Stone actually play for a bit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uhhhhh
> 
> I just got called out again by Lee on his stream?
> 
> And I just got gifted a sub on said stream??
> 
> And someone mentioned this fic ON SAID STREAM???
> 
> WAS YESTERDAY THE BEST DAY EVER OR WHAT?????
> 
> THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD EARLY BIRTHDAY GIFT AND I JUST WANNA SAY THANKS TO BOTH LEE AND THIS COMMUNITY FOR EVEN DOING THIS LIKE THIS FOR ME
> 
> I don't deserve you guys :')

Robotnik put on his headphones and looked up at the screen in front of him. His fingers twitched anxiously as he deliberated whether he should go through with this or if he should call the entire thing off. He stood up and paced around in his portable lab, feeling his hands shake at the thought of having to _actually_ play with Stone.

He had done everything he could to push back the date of his eventual ‘playdate’. He did small, meaningless jobs for the government. He tuned up every Badnik he had with a new update he created. Hell, he even started working on his new invention he mentioned to Stone on their mission. (He had begun to call it Mayhem, mostly because he knew that when this tank rolled out on enemy territory, it would cause so much mayhem.)

But alas, even the ingenious mind of Dr. Robotnik can’t prevent him from playing with Stone. He ran a hand through his hair as he shakily breathed out. He slammed his hands against his counter, cursing himself as one of the most foolish men that ever walked the Earth.

“Hello?”

Robotnik turned rapidly toward his monitors, his coat fluttering around him. He could see Stone’s face in the corner of the screen. (Even if the rational part of his mind pleaded for him not to tap into his agent’s personal belongings, the paranoid part of him didn’t want any way for Stone to get any secret information out of him and use it against him. If the latter were to happen, having Stone’s computer controlled by him already would make erasing anything personal easy.)

Robotnik stood straight, tilting his head up in a way of challenging the problem he now had to face. Whether he should play with Stone or if he should just ignore him in his entirety, it would most likely be the biggest turning point of his life. 

_I’ve faced threats worse than this. I shouldn’t be so terrified to play a simple_ **_game_ ** _with my agent, even if he doesn’t know it’s me._ Confidence bubbling inside the men, he strode gracefully to his seat and adjusted the microphone he had built a few nights previous.

“Hello?” he copied. He held his breath, wondering if the voice changer he added into the mic at the last minute sounded as natural as he thought it sounded.

“Hi,” Stone replied cheerfully. A glance upward gave the doctor’s mind a chance to relax, as the secret agent didn’t appear to notice anything wrong. He sighed, allowing himself a ghost of a smile.

“This is Stoney, right?” he jokingly asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, I’m him,” Stone replied. The white glow of his computer illuminated his face, providing the doctor with a good angle to admire the man’s features. He looked ‘soft’, a term that he learned while reading the comments of one of Stone’s videos. Indeed, in his grey pullover sweatshirt, his hair ruffled and unkempt, and his eyes bright and filled with happiness, he did look like the definition of purity (although Robotnik would be hesitant to admit it).

“Ok, can you give me your Steam account? I need to send you a link to join.”

Robotnik anticipated the question, and with ease told the man his account. In a matter of seconds, he got a message from Stone and, after he accepted the invite link, was transported to the home screen of Portal 2.

“Do you mind if I do my intro now?” Stone asked after a couple minutes of silence. Robotnik responded with a hum, bending back in his chair to watch Stone the YouTuber do his work.

“Hia pebbles, it’s Stoney!” Stone’s face filled the screen as he waved at the camera. “Today is a special day because I’m playing with my golden millionth subscriber, I R!” 

Robotnik gave a small wave but stopped when he remembered that nobody could see him. “Uh, hi everyone,” he said awkwardly. He didn’t know the social etiquette for being a YouTuber, which made a small part of his ego shrivel up and die at how mortifying it was to talk to an audience you couldn’t see.

“He...” Stone lowered his voice, saying, “you _do_ want to be called he, right?”

“Yeah,” Robotnik replied as a smile formed on his face.

“He chose to play Portal 2, which is exactly what we’re gonna be doing.” Stone pressed the ‘Play Cooperative Game’ button on his screen and entered it as player 1. As he waited for Robotnik to join him, he asked the doctor a simple question.

“What should I call you?”

Robotnik froze, feeling his eyelid twitch. He had hoped to avoid this question, yet fate didn’t seem to be smiling at him today. After some quick thinking, he calmly replied with, “Ivan.”

Close enough to his actual name that he wouldn’t mind it, right? Well, as he heard Stone giggle at the obvious nervousness in his voice, he felt himself blush when he heard his assistant say, “Alright, Ivan.”

He had never allowed anyone to call him by his first names. In fact, even the nuns at the orphanage were so strict with their treatment of him, he only heard his last name being yelled out as they hit him with the paddle. Anyone who dared to utter his first name was either brave or stupid, both of which fit Stone’s transcript.

“Alright, now what should we do now?” Stone asked after the small cutscene played. It subtly confirmed the doctor’s theory, although there was a part of his subconscious that flinched at the thought of calling Stone stupid, especially in this scenario. For the sake of the video he was going to publish, however, Robotnik held his tongue before he proclaimed that his agent was a simpleton and a fool for not knowing what came next.

“We have to go over there,” Robotnik said while pointing at the entrance they had to go through. His marker shone a bright orange as he walked towards the platforms in front of him. He navigated the course easily while Stone was making some small comments about the look of the game.

He stood in front of the board that would navigate them through the world. He could hear GLaDOS making some snide comment about humanity and the doctor felt his lips twitch briefly into a smile.

“Woah!” Stone exclaimed when he reached the board. “We can do gestures!” ATLAS did a little dance, eliciting a chuckle from the doctor.

“How’d you do that?” he asked.

“You press G and then you pick which gesture you want,” Stone replied as he did another gesture. This time, ATLAS pulled P-body into a hug, which the taller robot eventually relented into.

“Reminds me of someone else I know,” Stone muttered softly. Robotnik froze but quickly returned to normal as to not alert Stone of who he truly was.

“Who?” he questioned innocently, fear creeping back into his veins. He stared at the feed from Stone’s camera and saw his face relax into a pleasant smile.

“Someone I’ve admired for a long time.” Robotnik’s heart skipped a beat as his face flushed red once more. _Could he be talking about me?_

“Come on, Ivan,” Stone said as he walked into his chamber. “We got a lot of levels to finish.”

“Wait.” Stone turned ATLAS around, imitating how he would respond if he was truly there in front of Robotnik.

“Yeah?” Robotnik walked into the chamber room, but not into his chamber.

“What do I call you?” he asked. He glanced up at Stone and saw a quizzical look on his face. “I gave you my name, shouldn’t I call you by your name?”

Stone’s lips formed a grin as he replied. “Daniel. You can call me Daniel.”

“Daniel,” Robotnik murmured contently. He heard a hum come from the other man as they entered their chambers and got disassembled.

“I need a hydration break before we do anything else,” Stone said. Robotnik could hear the cap of a reusable bottle pop off as audible gulps flooded his hearing. He didn’t mind the shift from talking to unintentional ASMR, however. It only solidified the idea that Stone was, in fact, a human and not the unemotional agent that the doctor was used to seeing.

“Hope you have a bottle of water ready, Ivan, because this may take a while.”

Indeed, it had taken them a while, only because Robotnik kept trying to argue with GLaDOS whenever she made a snide comment towards them. Stone would always tell “Ivan” that he needed to relax and remember that it was just a game. “Ivan” would then proceed to tell Daniel to “shut your trap!”. Stone took it all in stride, though. Every punch that Robotnik dealt, he took with ease.

The time came when Robotnik’s intelligence was tested. They were near the end of the game already. Hours of playing had tired the overactive mind of the doctor, causing him to become slower in terms of thought processing. 

“My brain feels like an egg boiling on a sidewalk in an Arizonan heatwave,” Robotnik grumbled as he placed a portal in front of him. He had attempted to puzzle this level out, but he couldn’t figure out a way to do so.

He heard a shuffling noise as he saw Stone return to his seat. “Sorry I left. I had to take a…” His voice trailed off as he realized his partner hadn’t made any progress whatsoever.

“That difficult, huh?” Stone joked. Robotnik let out a groan and he sat back in his seat.

“I might actually be stumped,” he confessed. “I can’t think of how to progress.”

“Can I try?” Robotnik threw his hands in the air as he huffed.

“Be my guest.” ATLAS walked around the doctor, staying still for a couple minutes before a gasp came from the agent.

“Put your portal here,” Stone said as he placed a marker. “And then put your other one here. I’ll put mine over here and over _here_ , and we’ll see if it works.”

Robotnik did what was asked of him and surprise, surprise, it worked. Robotnik’s ego was in shambles as his mind struggled to process the fact that _STONE FIGURED OUT THIS LEVEL WHEN EVEN_ **_HE_ ** _COULDN’T DO IT!_

“Daniel,” he asked in an eerily calm voice, “can I have a second to myself?”

“Uh, sure?” Robotnik swiftly got out of his chair and walked to the very back of his portable lab. He took a deep breath in and screamed at the top of his lungs in frustration. 

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” he roared. “IT WAS _THAT_ EASY?”

He could hear Stone’s laughter coming from the headphones that he left on his console. Instead of yelling at Stone, he faced the ‘prototype’ and yelled at it instead.

“GIVE ME A BIG, FAT BREAK!” His hands twisted in his hair and with the amount of force he used to tug at his hair, it’s a wonder how none of it was pulled out.

Stone’s laughter increased dramatically. Robotnik swirled around, staring at the screen. He could see his assistant doubled over and clutching his stomach. Tears fell down his face at the intensity of his laughter and he struggled to wipe them away as more tears followed.

Robotnik felt himself calm down significantly. He walked back to his chair and peacefully said, “Thank you for waiting, Daniel. I appreciate it.”

Stone coughed a few times before he could choke out, “It’s fine.” He coughed a couple times more before he grabbed his bottle and took a sip of water. He put the bottle down carefully and, with sort of a sore throat now, wheeze out, “God, that was hilarious.”

Robotnik let out a chuckle as he moved towards the exit. “I’m glad you enjoyed my little outrage, Daniel, but we have more pressing matters to attend to.”

Letting out one last laugh, Stone replied with an “Alright,” and headed to the exit as well. When they were in their chambers and were promptly disassembled, Stone uttered, “Man, my serotonin levels are through the roof right now!”

Robotnik smiled at the saying. He knew Daniel was prone to referring to moments of elation or ‘chill’ moments with fans as ‘serotonin time’. He was glad his agent was using some terminology from him, even if it wasn’t anything tech-related.

They continued the game like nothing happened. They finished the next few levels easily as Robotnik’s mind finally switched over from American Online to the glorious internet of today’s times. They got to the ending and, even if Robotnik wasn’t emotionally invested in the game, felt something tug at their heartstrings as the realization of their actions slipped into the crevices of their mentality.

“Damn,” Stone whispered hesitantly. “I didn’t realize…”

Robotnik looked up at Stone’s feed as the man wiped some tears that fell down his face. “I didn’t realize we would do _that_.”

“Yeah,” Robotnik said gently. “As I walked away from this game the first time, I was ecstatic to know I finished it. Playing it again, however, makes me realize the gravity of the situation we inadvertently caused.”

Stone sniffled before he took in a shaky breath. “Well, at least we’re finished with the game, right?”

Robotnik smiled. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

“Can I do my outro?”

“Oh, yeah,” Robotnik replied as he blinked. “I forgot you were recording.”

Stone turned to face the camera. “Thank you guys so much for watching this video. I don’t know how long I’ll make this. I might have to break it down into chunks, so be aware of that. I also want to thank Ivo for joining me today and for being my millionth subscriber.”

Robotnik felt himself freeze as he replied with a relatively calm, “Thanks for having me.”

Stone paused his outro and shot a smile at the screen in front of him. “I’m glad to have had you on here.” 

Stone cleared his throat and continued. “I really appreciate every single one of you and I’ll see you guys later. Stay crystal clear, pebs! Bye!” 

Daniel waved at the camera for a bit before he clapped, signaling the end of his outro. He groaned, slipping down his chair.

“That was a long 6 hours,” he said. His head slumped forwards as he stretched. “This might be the longest I’ve gamed in a while.”

Robotnik was silent as his mind raced. Stone realized something was amiss as whispered, “Is everything alright?”

“My name is Ivan,” Robotnik replied quickly. “But you called me Ivo.”

Stone chuckled before he looked up at the camera. It unnerved the doctor greatly as Stone’s eyes practically gaze right through him. It was almost like he _knew_ he was being watched but said nothing against it this entire time. It didn’t help Robotnik as a smirk spread on the agent’s face.

“Are you sure about that?” Stone purred before the screen went black. Robotnik was left sitting there, mouth wide open as he stared in disbelief at the empty screen before him. His heart beat faster as the doctor’s mind finally accepted the fact that his fears came into fruition.

“How did he know it was me?” he breathed. He looked around for any signs of a camera being turned on, a slip of his masquerade of a normal human being, his microphone glitching and somehow his voice wasn’t being changed. 

He picked up the mic as that thought now became more and more logical. He checked the microphone 3 times before he was safely able to confirm that his mic had, indeed, _not_ glitched out. Something still felt wrong in his opinion, however. He turned it onto its side and looked for the miniature speck of light that he added onto the voice changer so he knew where it was and whether or not it was working.

_Wait. Don’t tell me I forgot to turn the voice changer on._

…

“I FORGOT TO TURN THE VOICE CHANGER ON!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I see you guys from Lee's stream
> 
> I'm not going to call you out, but I know you read this fic
> 
> I'm watching you
> 
> 👀


	7. Help Hotline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stone has an anxiety attack and calls his sister to help him though it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First things first, I know this may be out of left field for me. I've never really written angst before, so that may be why this chapter kinda sucks. I've never had any experience with panic/anxiety attacks so if this isn't an accurate portrayal, I'm sorry. I promise that things will get better in the end for both Stone and Robotnik. In fact, next chapter will have Robotnik's point of view on this, and the chapter after that will have them finally talking about their situation. Sorry for the long note. I hope you guys like this chapter. I'll see you guys very soon. :)

_Oh no_ , is all the Stone could think of. _What did I just do?_

Stone stood up swiftly, hearing his chair roll into the wall next to him. His hands were shaking as his mind frantically switched from overly ecstatic to immensely traumatized. 

He took the camera off of its stand and hid it in his desk drawer. He took off his headphones, unplugged the microphone, and gave those devices the same treatment. He left his little office room, left-hand twitching like mad as the other hand ran through his short hair.

He walked into his bedroom, dazed. It felt like he was in a dream. Did he really play with his _boss_? For more than _6 HOURS_!? _DID HE ACTUALLY COMPLETE PORTAL 2 IN ONE NIGHT WITH_ **_DOCTOR IVO ROBOTNIK!?_ **

His breath quickened as he felt the beginnings of an anxiety attack come on. He felt tears flood down his face as he struggled to find his phone. He had to get someone, _anyone_ , on the phone to help him ride out this attack.

A flash of light illuminated his bedside table as he received a notification. He practically ran towards it, fumbling with the keyboard as he punched in his password. It was a text from Aicha.

_Hey Dan, how are you? You haven’t texted me all day. Did you record a video today?_

Daniel laughed shakily as he pressed on the “Call” button on his phone. He dialed Aicha’s number in and waited for her to pick up. He sat down on his bed, opening the top drawer of his table with shaky hands. He pulled out his medication when the groggy voice of his sister filtered through the phone’s speaker.

“Daniel?” she asked. “What’s up?”

He didn’t say anything, just held his pill bottle as his trembling became worse. The rattling of the pills startled the sister awake. Stone could hear her get out of her bed, walking into her bathroom.

“Daniel, what happened?” she questioned. She kept her voice soft with a gentle firmness to it. Daniel had done this many times before, where he would call her at odd hours of the night and be in the middle of an anxiety attack. Usually, it was because he had a nightmare about someone getting hurt or something to do with Robotnik, yet she knew something was different this time around.

“I told him.” His voice, rough from the effort of holding back tears, broke at the last word. He opened his bottle of pills and took one out. He swallowed it immediately, throwing himself onto his bed. He curled up in the fetal position, holding his legs close to his chest as he placed the phone down near his head.

“Told who what?” Aicha asked. She was pacing around her bathroom, trying to stay calm herself down. She was concerned with the way Daniel was acting, especially with how cryptic he was making things.

“Robotnik,” he breathed. He shook harder now, remembering how smug he tried to be when he turned to face the camera. It was a shot in the dark to do that. He didn’t really know if his camera was hacked or not, but knowing Robotnik, anything’s possible.

He heard his sister gasp. His lips flashed into a quick smile before he quickly responded, “No, not about that.”

He heard Aicha sit down on something as she breathed a sigh of relief. “God, you scared me. I thought I had to give you a lecture on how to properly ask someone out next time.”

Daniel laughed softly. He closed his eyes, forcing thoughts of what happened a couple seconds ago to fade as he tried to ground himself in the moment.

“Should I just talk about random things now?” Aicha said, almost like she read his mind. She knew that talking to someone was what helped ground Daniel the most. A muffled “Yes,” was heard and she immediately went off on a tangent. She talked about different places she wanted to go to, how much fun Christmas would be when everyone came back home, how boring it was at her job. All things that would better be classified as small talk, yet Daniel listened to every sentence attentively. 

Slowly but surely, he began to relax. His breathing, radical before, had now become more relaxed as he did those breathing exercises he learned in therapy. His gaze went to the paintings he had on the wall and tried to remember what he had used to make them (another grounding technique that he learned). His shaking had stopped a while back, yet the tenseness of his muscles didn’t leave him until he heard Aicha’s rambling start to come to a stop.

“Oh god, my mouth feels so dry,” she mumbled, walking out of the bathroom. She heard her brother snort as she made her way into the kitchen.

“Maybe you should drink some water,” Daniel suggested smugly. “Maybe that’ll help your throat.”

“No,” Aicha firmly replied. “Water tastes disgusting.”

“Water’s good for you!” Daniel said indignantly.

“It’s not good for my body,” she retorted. “Remember that time I drank _two whole cups of water_? I felt like I was about to either die or ascend to another plane of existence.”

Daniel laughed, lifting himself up off of the bed enough to pull out the covers. He laid back down properly, shifting himself around so he could find that perfect spot on the bed. He sighed, placing the phone on his chest.

“Are you feeling better now?” Aicha hesitantly asked. She sipped her soda quietly, not wanting to be rude as her brother spoke.

“More so than earlier.” 

“Are you going to hydrate?” his sister asked. Daniel chuckled, reaching for the bottle of water that he always had next to his bed. He made a point of opening the bottle close to the phone’s mic and drank as loudly as he could.

“I’m five steps ahead of you, Aicha,” he said as he put the bottle down. He could hear her mutter “I swear,” which caused him to laugh.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?” Her voice sounded meek; it was so quiet Daniel could barely hear it through the speaker.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I guess I have to.”

Daniel groaned as he sat up. He ran a hand through his hair as he lazily gazed around his room. His body felt so tired, yet his mind felt like a beehive with the number of thoughts that were passing through his head. He sighed again.

“You know how I reached a million subs on YouTube?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yeah,” Aicha replied, taking a sip of soda. “What about it?”

“Robotnik was my millionth subscriber.”

Aicha spat out her drink, coughing as some of the liquid went down the wrong pipe. “What?” she choked out.

Daniel chuckled. “Yup.”

“Your _boss_ was your millionth subscriber?”

“Yup.”

“As in, Robotnik.”

“Yup.”

“ _Doctor Ivo Robotnik_.”

“That’s the one.”

“ _The guy that you can’t stop talking about for more than 5 seconds_.”

Daniel frowned. “I feel like we’re getting a bit off-topic, Aicha.”

“I’m just saying!” Aicha picked up her glass and started sipping her soda again. “So, how’d he take it?”

Daniel’s eyebrows furrowed. “Take what?”

“You being a YouTuber.” Aicha walked over to a chair in the living room and sat down. “How’d he take it?”

“Well...”

“You didn’t tell him?”

“Technically, I called him out on it more than actually tell him.”

Aicha stopped moving. “Call him out?”

Daniel scratched the back of his neck. “I was making a video with him and he asked me to call him Ivan instead of Ivo. When we finished recording一

“You called him Ivo?”

Daniel groaned, trying hard to forget that moment. Aicha took that noise as confirmation.

“Daniel, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what’s wrong? You called your boss by his first name while you played a game with him. Sure, he might be a bit angry about it, but what’s the problem?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Daniel snapped. His eyes widened as he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.”

“Daniel, it’s fine,” Aicha replied. “All I want to do is help you through this, but I need more information about _why_ this is affecting you so much. Can you please tell me?

It was silent for a few minutes as the agent attempted to figure out what he could say.

“It’s just一” Daniel paused, feeling tears start to well up. “What if I lose my job?”

“Daniel, I don’t think you can lose your job for doing that.”

“No,” Daniel said quickly. “I mean, what if Robotnik fires me? What if my stunt made him hate me? What if he never wants to see me again because I back-talked him?”

His breathing became erratic again. He placed a hand on his chest as it felt like it was being tightened by a corset. His body trembled slightly as he allowed the dark voices in his head to prevail, terrified yet mesmerized at the horrid scenarios that passed through his mind. 

_Robotnik pinning him to the wall, yelling that he was fired for being an incompetent fool. Robotnik_ **_not_ ** _talking to him and instead allowed the Badniks to shoot Stone on sight as a way of never having him set foot in the lab again. Robotnik simply saying, “You’re fired,” and pointing at the door. Robotnik hurting him for tricking him all this time. Robotnik telling him to leave. Robotnik firing him. Robotnik leaving him. Robotnik_ **_hating_ ** _him._

That last thought scared him to no end. He could hear the shouts of the doctor in his ears as he had to stand still when all he wanted to do was run away. He took all this abuse and humiliation and heartache for a man that could easily throw him away like a used tissue. Yet he couldn’t leave. He felt glued to the man, like if he didn’t see the doctor once every day he would begin to lose himself. The mere _mention_ of the doctor hating him hit the poor man like a ton of bricks as new tears made trails down his face.

Daniel was so close to spiraling into another attack when the gentle voice of his sister shook him out of his stupor.

“Daniel!”

The man raised his head, staring at the wall in front of him. He felt his tears fall on top of his hand as he heard Aicha say, “Remember to breathe.”

He took a deep breath in, going along with the timing Aicha was providing him. She kept her voice gentle as, slowly, her brother’s breathing returned back to an acceptable level.

“Are you alright?” Aicha asked softly after a minute of silence.

“What if I lose him?” Daniel murmured, hardly louder than the wind fluttering through the leaves. “What if I can’t work for him anymore?”

“Oh, Daniel,” she whispered.

“I can’t lose him, Aicha,” he said loudly. His voice became a mix of fear and passion as he proclaimed, “He’s the most important person to me. I would _die_ for him. Hell, I’ve almost died for him _multiple times_ in the past! I _can’t_ have him leave me. I don’t know what I’ll do if he does.”

He closed his eyes, biting his lip as he forced himself not to continue on with this pitiful excuse of absolute devotion he had for the genius. Sadly, our bodies sometimes disobey our reasoning, opting instead to take initiative in matters such as confession.

“I’m scared, Aicha,” he choked out. “I’m so scared.”

Aicha sighed, not knowing what to say for once. She felt helpless in this situation and it made her chest hurt to know she couldn’t do anything to help her brother out. She leaned back in her chair, feeling tears of her own leave tracks as they slid down her face.

“I’m sorry, Daniel,” she whispered. “I wish I could help you, but I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry.”

Daniel took a shaky breath before replying gently, “It’s fine, Aicha. There’s nothing that can really get me out of this situation. Why worry about it if it was going to happen eventually?”

Aicha snorted against her will. “You should like mom now with all her sayings.”

“You know I used one of her sayings on Robotnik once?”

“No way,” Aicha exclaimed, lifting herself off of her chair. “Really?”

Daniel chuckled. “It was the growing older one.”

“‘Don’t fear growing older──’”

“‘Embrace it with vigor as you trudge on in your life,’” Daniel finished with a smile.

“How’d he react to it?”

“He told me to shut up.”

Aicha laughed, the sound echoing in her living room. The man smiled as he heard her laugh. Laughter was something he craved to hear from others, as he never wanted anyone to feel down about themselves. Hearing her genuinely laugh for the first time since this call brought a joy to him that made those previous negative thoughts fade into the night.

“I swear,” Aicha said after she calmed down. “Next time you do something like that, record it and send it to me.”

Daniel chuckled. “I will.”

Moments of peaceful yet strained silence passed between the two siblings as they tried to figure out what to do next.

“Daniel?” He hummed, not knowing what else to do in response.

“Are you ok?”

He sighed. “No, but I’ll be alright when tomorrow passes.”

Aicha nodded, not remembering that her brother couldn’t see her. “Do you think you’ll be able to get some sleep?”

Daniel ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, probably.”

“Did you take your meds?”

“Yes, mother.”

Aicha huffed in annoyance but smiled at the soft giggles coming from her brother. “Alright, Daniel. I’ll leave you to it. Call or text me if something happens, ok?”

Daniel felt the ghost of a smile grow on his face. “I will, Aicha. I promise.”

“Goodnight, Daniel.”

“Night, Aicha.”

The click of the phone told the agent that his sister had left the call. He groaned as he laid down on the bed with a huff. He got himself under the covers once more, not enjoying the warmth he felt as he shifted around on the bed. His gaze traveled up the wall and landed on his most prized painting.

It was of Robotnik, sitting down in a field of flowers. A flower crown of daisies and camellias was on his head as he began to make another one. A beautiful expression was on his face, one of tranquility and adoration. The doctor was out of his usual black and red-trimmed attire and put into a pale white robe, designed as one the Ancient Greeks would wear. 

Daniel had dreamt of it months prior and as soon as he woke up he began to paint. It was soothing to look at, even as the agent went through several crying fits about the man in the painting. He didn’t know how he did it, but the painting had such an uncanny likeness to Robotnik that he thought he had the essence of Leonardo DaVinci possess him.

He stared at the painting in admiration. He hadn’t told anyone of the paint, nor did he _want_ to. It was a secret between himself and no one, and he intended to keep it that way.

Exhaustion flowed over him until his body finally felt the effects of playing for 6 hours straight and subsequently crying multiple times afterwards. He kept his eyes on the painting as he smiled. Not one of happiness, but one of acceptance. Whatever he was going to face tomorrow was going to happen, and whatever the outcome, he would be alright.

“Goodnight, Ivo,” he mumbled, feeling a bit embarrassed to be talking to a painting. He closed his eyes, wondering if the faint “Goodnight, Daniel” he heard was a figment of his imagination or an actual sentence uttered by the man who had stolen his heart so many years before.


	8. Snooping as Usual I See?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the aftermath of Robotnik playing with Stone, but in Robotnik's POV. He essentially listens in on the call Stone has with his sister and remembers a dark time in his past that he would rather forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sah dudes, what's popping? 😎
> 
> I know that this update is very late in terms of when I usually post updates. It's just that school got in the way and I'm still studying to do the ACT, so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I do want to warn everyone, however, this chapter gets dark in the middle. This deals with unhealthy obsessions and stalking. I'll put those dividers between the parts where this stuff is mentioned so you can gloss right by it. If you still think that's not enough, by all means skip this chapter. The summary, although very brief, tells you everything. 
> 
> I do want to say that [Redacted] got therapy for his obsessions and he will get therapy soon because of what happens in the chapter. If you believe that you are experiencing anything like what Robotnik is in the closed-off section, please seek professional help. Stay safe everyone. I'll try to update soon. Love you guys 💚

_I will never do anything like this ever again_ , Robotnik thought as he ran his hand through his hair. He stared down at the microphone he had just smashed to bits. His body shook with such fury it was making the portable lab move subtly as well.

He stomped on the worthless piece of metal as a notification appeared on his screen.

_Message sent from_ **_AICHA STONE_ ** _to_ **_AGENT STONE_ ** _at 8:29PM. Read?_

_YES NO_

Robotnik snarled at the notification. He didn’t _need_ to be reminded that ~~Daniel~~ AGENT STONE had a family that _loves_ and _cares for him_. 

_Call started by_ **_AGENT STONE_ ** _to_ **_AICHA STONE_ ** _at 10:38PM. Listen?_

_YES NO_

A reluctant groan escaped his lips as he walked over to the console. As much as he desperately wanted this embarrassing and disheartening night to end, curiosity got the better of him. He quickly hit the “Yes” button and was immediately forced to listen to someone crying. A pang went through his heart as he realized those quiet sobs were coming from Stone himself.

“ _I told him,_ ” he heard Stone say. His breath hitched at the word ‘him’. _Could this have something to do with me?_

“ _Told who what?_ ” the voice of Aicha Stone came through the speakers of the lab. Robotnik was startled and furious at the alien voice interrupting this tender moment he was having with Stone before remembering that Ms. Stone was the recipient of the call and he was just a creep with 5 PhD.s that wanted to know everything about his assistant’s life.

“ _Robotnik._ ”

Hearing his name being said by the agent chilled the doctor to his bones. It reminded him about the little surprise Stone had given him after their recording session. He felt like _he_ was the one being observed right now instead of Stone. He cast a nervous glance around the lab before turning his attention back onto the call.

 _“No, not about that,”_ Stone replied. His voice sounded very tender, as a mother reprimanding their child would. Even if he was still furious at Stone for his stunt earlier, he couldn't help but smile when he heard the agent's tone as he spoke.

 _What could he be referring to?_ Robotnik thought. _What does_ ‘that’ _mean?_

The relieved sigh that echoed in the mobile lab was quickly followed by “ _God, you scared me. I thought I had to give you a lecture on how to properly ask someone out next time._ ”

A metaphorical record scratch played in the doctor’s head. _Ask someone out? No, this can’t be. He can’t actually一_

“ _Should I just talk about random things now?_ ” The feminine voice pulled him out of his momentary stupor, yet the muffled “ _Yes_ ” practically pushed him back into that void. Ms. Stone began talking about things that he didn’t need to focus on right now. All he could focus on was the ragged breathing of his agent and how it slowly but surely turned back to normal.

Dark thoughts floated around in his mind. The time spent at the orphanage was at the forefront of his mind, causing his own breathing to become harsher and more rapid.

The only thing he had ever wanted when he was younger was a friend. He would vehemently deny it and act as disgusted as he wanted to drive in the fact that humanity was just a stick of gum that was now stuck on the bottom of his newly shined shoes. Yet Robotnik, like everyone else on this planet, had emotions and desires that were more pronounced when he was a child. The relentless teasing he had to endure for liking things that were considered fads that would disappear in the next couple of years. The endless abuse he had given to him by the nuns with paddles stronger than steel. It was hell on earth and he was the only one facing it.

A thought invaded this darkness he was being swallowed up in; however, instead of being a life raft, it became a rock tied to his foot, dragging him further into the dark abyss of his mind.

He had done something similar to this in the past. He had been 16, in the midst of his growth spurt and at the height of Hormonal Hell, a clever little name he thought of. He was already the youngest person to enter college, and it was such a relief to be around others who weren’t thinking about the other gender in a way that made him gag. (If truth be told, he never expected the orphanage to allow him the chance to go to college so young. Perhaps it was because they just wanted to get rid of him.) 

It was mid-spring and he was finishing his first Bachelor's degree. He had been walking around campus to distract himself, as he had finished up his homework. He sat down at a bench, wishing the day could finish up already so he could go to class the next day. With his eyes closed and head tilted up to the sky, he was caught by surprise when he heard a chipper voice say, “Excuse me!”

He opened an eye, about to chastise the person for interrupting his alone time when he stopped. Quickly he opened his eyes and sat up straight. He had to mentally check himself to make sure he didn’t have his mouth open.

Before him was a fairly well-dressed lady. She was wearing a dress suit with a matching skirt. Robotnik quickly assessed that she must be a student, since she looked very young and there weren’t any female teachers in the university, as far as he could remember. She held several books under her arm, further confirming the boy’s theory. She swiped a piece of dark brown hair out of her face and she smiled at Robotnik.

 _She’s gorgeous_ , he thought at once. He shook his head, trying to dispel the sudden thought from his head. He was _not_ about to allow his hormones to control him in such a way. _She’s average-looking at best,_ he critiqued himself. Yet for some inexplicable reason, he felt himself wince away from the obviously true statement.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” the woman said with a smile, “but do you know where Professor Blake’s classroom is? Apparently, the room he was in is getting reconstructed after a boy ran into it.”

Robotnik snorted. He heard the student, named Zayde Johnson, had one too many drinks at a frat party and had been dared to ram his beautiful ‘67 Corvette into the English professor’s room. He hadn’t believed the blonde would go through with it, but he shouldn’t have been surprised that Zayde _would_ go through with it.

“He’s in room 1205. It’s in almost the same exact placement of his old room, only on the second floor and two doors to the right.”

“Thank you!” the woman said cheerfully. “You don’t know how many people I’ve asked today about where his new room is.”

“Well, everyone is confused about it as well.” Robotnik stood up, a ghost of a smile gracing his face. “If you’ll allow me to, may I walk you over there?”

The woman nodded. “Of course you can. I wouldn’t pass up a chance of making a new friend.”

Somehow, the use of the word friend was bittersweet when Ivo processed it a second later. He smiled and took charge as he led the woman to the English professor’s room. They filled the silence with mindless chatter, mostly about the weather, the teachers, the school food. All too soon they arrived at Professor Blake’s door.

“Thank you for walking me to class,” the woman said. Ivo nodded and bowed slightly.

“It’s always a pleasure to help my fellow students out when they need it.” A part of his mind was laughing at how terrific of a liar he was. _“Helping out fellow students?” Ha! That’s a riot._

The woman giggled. “I’m glad _you_ were the person to guide me here, then.” She reached for the doorknob, ready to enter the classroom. “Thank you once again for your help.”

She turned to open the door when Ivo raised a hand. “Wait.” She paused, looking at him with a questioning look.

He reached up and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “I…I never got to know your name.”

She grinned. “My name is Alexa Robinson.” She reached out a well-manicured hand out to him. “What’s yours?”

He hesitantly reached out a hand and grasped hers gently. “Ivo. My name’s Ivo Robotnik.” She raised an eyebrow at the uncommon name and Ivo quickly responded, “My last name is Russian.”

“Ah,” Alexa breathed. “That makes sense.” She took her hand out of Ivo’s and put it back on the doorknob. “Hopefully we can speak at a later date, Ivo.” With a quick smile, she opened the door and entered the classroom. Ivo stood there, staring at his hand for a solid minute before shaking himself out of his trance and leaving to go back to his dorm room. 

They had become quick friends over the course of the next 4 weeks. They met up every day to help tutor each other. (It was mostly Ivo tutoring Alexa, yet there were still things the self-proclaimed genius needed help understanding.) Finals came and Ivo resigned to never seeing the woman again. However, he applied to get his Master’s degree at the same college and was relieved to find that Alexa was still at the university.

* * *

He found her reading a book in the massive library the university had. He knocked on the table, startling her into dropping the book. She glared at him, but a second later she grinned as she realized who interrupted her reading.

“Ivo!” she gasped. “I didn’t think I would see you again.”

“Expect the unexpected, Ms. Robinson,” he whispered as he sat down next to her. “How have you been since I’ve last seen you?”

“Oh, it’s been a nightmare!” Alexa hissed. “I’m already behind on my writing assignments and I don’t know what I can do to catch up.”

Ivo smiled at her as he thumbed the spine of the book she was reading. “If you would allow me, I can write those assignments for you.”

“Oh no,” she waved him off. “I could never forgive myself if I let someone else do my work.”

Ivo hummed. “I understand. If you need any help, however, I still hope I can offer you my assistance.” 

“Alexa.” Both of them turned to look at the person that spoke.

The person that spoke turned out to be a man. His hair, a sandy blonde, was combed back as his green eyes gazed down at Alexa in admiration. Ivo stiffened at the newcomer, wondering what connection they had with the woman in front of him.

“John! I didn’t expect to see you here.” She stood up and kissed him on the mouth. Ivo had to resist the urge to gag at what he saw. The feeling of disgust wasn’t too great to dispel the rage he felt towards John, however. Like a lion watching over its prey, he squinted his eyes and sat up straight.

“Who’s your friend, Alexa?” John asked. Alexa made a move to answer before Ivo butted in.

“Ivo Robotnik,” he replied stiffly, extending his hand. John grabbed it and gave it a friendly shake.

“Johnathon Greenwood. I’m glad to see Alexa is making friends with other students around here. She’s a very shy girl, you know.”

“Really?” Ivo raised his eyebrow in mock surprise. “She’s always talking to others whenever I happen to pass by her.”

“She is?” John looked over to Alexa with a smile. “I’m proud of you Lexi!”

Someone in the table row over shushed them very harshly, making an embarrassed blush cover John’s cheeks.

“Sorry!” he whispered back to the person before looking back at Ivo. “It’s nice to meet you, Ivo. I hope we can talk more. Right now,” he pulled Alexa close to him, “I need to take this girl out on a date that she promised me over a month ago.”

Alexa giggled and picked up the book that was still on the table. “Bye, Ivo. I’ll see you later.”

“Farewell, Alexa. If you still need help with your essays, my offer is still available.”

Alexa waved at Ivo before walking out with John. The genius was left there with a feeling of envy heavy in his gut. He began to shake with fury, but at the sideward glances he received from those around him, he quickly controlled himself and walked out of the library.

Back in his room, he began plotting on how to get Alexa to be with him. John’s presence wasn’t about to deter him from claiming his prize. _He_ had been the one to help her out multiple times, so shouldn’t _he_ be by her side? He planned very meticulously about how to subtly implement himself into Alexa’s life in a way that she wouldn’t be able to notice.

He spoke to her more often. He helped her out with more assignments. They spent hours on end in the library, sometimes staying until the sun set. Her smile, her laugh, everything about her only motivated the man further as he eventually grew closer to Alexa.

Eventually, when he thought the time was right, he snuck to her room, observing her with the fragile machine he designed months before. The camera quality was atrocious, yet it provided him a view at the one who stole his heart. He would watch her study, talk with friends, cook. He always turned the other way whenever she got up to change, thinking himself a gentleman for doing so. He growled at the screen whenever John would pop up. He practically had to restrain himself from the amount of rage he felt when he saw the two of them kiss.

One night, it became too much. He was able to sneak up the stairs to her dorm room without anyone seeing him. He opened her door with a picklock and silently closed it behind him. He tiptoed his way into her bedroom and stood over her bed. He watched her sleep, admiring the moonlight as it fell onto her gentle face. He reached out to pet her when he heard a peck at the window. He turned swiftly to observe a raven tapping on the glass with its beak. It stared at Ivo before squawking and flying away.

He stood there in the darkness, terror freezing him in place. He didn’t understand why he was feeling this way until he looked to the side and stared down at Alexa. She was still asleep, yet her features had lessened in their beauty. She changed to someone that would most likely be a background character. It was like he was woken up from a trance.

He walked backward quickly, realizing the severity of the situation. _He had broken into someone else’s dorm and was staring at them_ ** _in their sleep._** He needed help. He needed to stay away from Alexa. _He needed to get out of here immediately._

He escaped the now suffocating room and wasn’t caught when he slipped back into his own room. He laid in his bed until the early morning’s light filled his room. He dressed for class like normal, yet he took a different path to them. He intentionally avoided Alexa for an entire semester. When winter break was upon them, he asked for a transfer to another university. Harvard took him in and he was able to escape a past he was ready to forget.

* * *

Thankfully, he had gotten the help he needed. He went to therapy, took medication that was prescribed to him, and was able to prevent himself from doing anything like this again.

_Until today, when he played with Daniel._

_Until a year ago, when he discovered Daniel’s YouTube channel and subsequently subscribed to him._

_He had done the same things he did to Alexa, yet it was Daniel who was his target now._

He never wished for this to happen again. Never wished to harm those he (dare he say it?) loved. That’s why, despite everything his therapist told him, he pushed others away. He insulted them, berated them, screamed at them. Everyone had kept their distance when they saw the doctor become the feral animal he had built himself up to be. It was enough to keep those few that he didn’t dislike away from him, lest he would have a repeat of what happened with Alexa.

Yet here he was, sobbing over hurting the one person that would keep him company all hours of the day if he was able to. Robotnik had lied to Stone, pretended that he was someone else, and subtly manipulated his way into the agent’s personal life. The doctor felt sick to his stomach. Bile began to rise up in his throat, but he held it down for the sake of hearing ~~Stone’s~~ _Daniel’s_ voice once more.

The sudden yell of “ _You wouldn’t understand_ ” brought Robotnik back to the real world. “ _I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell_ ,” Daniel said.

“ _Daniel, it’s fine_ ,” Ms. Stone responded. “ _All I want to do is help you through this, but I need more information about why this is affecting you so much. Can you tell me?_ ”

The agent said nothing in response which scared Robotnik more than he would care to admit. He was about to open his mouth when Daniel said, _“It’s just…_ ” Another pause. “ _What if I lose my job?_ ”

“ _Daniel, I don’t think you can lose your job for doing that._ ”

“ _No. I mean, what if Robotnik fires me? What if my stunt made him hate me? What if he never wants to see me again because I back-talked him?_ ”

“Oh, Daniel,” Robotnik whispered at the same time as Ms. Stone said it.

“ _I_ _can’t lose him, Aicha_.” Daniel’s voice was now shaky as he continued. “ _He’s the most important person to me. I would die for him. Hell, I’ve almost died for him multiple times in the past. I can’t have him leave me. I don’t know what I’ll do if he does_.”

Robotnik felt his throat tighten with shame. He knew that Daniel was loyal to him, but he didn’t realize _how_ loyal he was. Did he really take his agent for granted?

“ _I’m scared, Aicha_ ,” Daniel choked out. “ _I_ _’m so scared_.”

“ _I’m sorry, Daniel_ ,” Ms. Stone murmured. “ _I wish I could help you, but I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry_.”

Daniel breathed in before responding. “ _I_ _t’s fine, Aicha. There’s nothing that can really get me out of this situation. Why worry about it if it was going to happen eventually?_ ”

A snort came from Ms. Stone. “ _You should like mom now with all her sayings_.”

“ _You know I used one of her sayings on Robotnik once?_ ”

Robotnik had a ghost of a smile on his face as he sat down. He wasn’t sure if the quote Daniel was talking about was the one he was thinking of.

“‘ _Don’t fear growing older一_ ’”

“‘ _Embrace it with vigor as you trudge on in your life_.’”

Yup, that was the one.

“ _How did he react to it?_ ” Ms. Stone asked.

“ _He told me to shut up_.”

Ms. Stone laughed as Robotnik chuckled fondly. That day had been a particularly stressful one. 4 of his Badniks had malfunctioning and he was been forced to go to his monthly conference with a bunch of government lackeys. He had made an off-comment about how he loathed growing older after he heard his bones pop when he sat down in his chair. He didn’t mind the saying later, but at the time he didn’t want to hear Stone’s ‘holy advice’.

“ _I_ _swear_ ,” Ms. Stone uttered after her laughing fit. “ _Next time you do something like that, record it and send it to me_.”

Daniel chuckled, pulling at Robotnik’s heartstrings and pulling out a reluctant smile from the doctor. “ _I will_ ,” the agent said.

There was silence in the call, silence that gave Robotnik enough time to bring up Stone’s file. He stared at the picture in the file, remembering the absolute hatred he felt at not being able to get rid of this particularly stubborn agent. How foolish he was to think that.

“ _Daniel?_ ” Ms. Stone asked hesitantly. A hum from the agent edged her on. “ _Are you ok?_ ”

A sigh came from Daniel. “ _No, but I’ll be alright when tomorrow passes_.”

“ _Do you think you’ll be able to get some sleep?_ ”

“ _Yeah, probably_.”

“ _Did you take your meds?_ ”

“ _Yes, mother_.”

Robotnik barked out a laugh just in time to hear Ms. Stone say, “ _I’ll leave you to it. Call or text me if something happens, ok?_ ”

“ _I will, Aicha. I promise_.”

“ _Goodnight, Daniel_.” 

“ _Night, Aicha_.”

_Call Terminated_

Robotnik pushed his chair over to the console and was about to type in the command he created to hack into Stone’s phone when he stopped. His hands were mere centimeters away from the keys when he thought it over. _Should he do this?_

With a quick breath in, he typed out the command and stared at the blank screen. The doctor sighed in relief when only the audio was coming through, now shown as an audiovisual effect on his screen. Soft spikes indicated the breathing of his agent, which made Robotnik at least somewhat glad to be listening to him. _Good, he’s breathing normally. That’s all I needed to hear._

He was about to end the call when he heard a faint, “Goodnight, Ivo.”

Robotnik looked up at the screen, startled. _Does Daniel know I’ve hacked into his phone?_ The silence that followed suggested to the genius that it was just something that slipped from Daniel’s tongue.

He swiftly grabbed the microphone that was built into the console and pulled it to his mouth. He looked at the picture and, with a tender smile, uttered, “Goodnight, Daniel.”

He sat there until he could hear soft snores of Daniel wafting in through the speakers. He sighed and put the microphone back to its normal spot. A swipe of his hand and all the windows on his holoscreen closed on themselves. Another swipe closed down his console for the night. A third and final swipe brought out a cot Robotnik had built into the mobile lab recently for nights when he didn’t want to go home to sleep. 

He pulled off his shoes and hung his jacket on a nearby railing. He fell onto the cot face first, not bothering to pull the covers over him. He raised his still-gloved hand and swirled it around. The lab lit up a soft white as the lab's AI awaited Robotnik’s next order.

“Set a reminder when I wake up to call my therapist. I need to set up an appointment soon.” A beep sounded through the lab, signaling to Robotnik that the reminder had been set. 

He shifted around so he laid on his back. The lights dimmed slowly, leaving the man in near darkness. He closed his eyes and hoped that his sleep wouldn’t be filled with nightmares tonight. He needed all the strength he had for tomorrow because, from the tone of ~~Daniel~~ Stone’s voice, tomorrow was going to be one that would change both of their lives forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I didn't expect it to be this dark when I wrote it. The whole stalker thing was a thought that entered my brain and my fingers said, "Ok, we write this now." I'm sorry if this isn't what you expected/wanted. I hope the next chapter is more to your tastes.


	9. A Much Needed Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After last night, the men have a talk about what happened and what they can do to move forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we're nearing the end of this fic. It's honestly quite a shock for me. I knew it would have to end sooner or later, but...damn.
> 
> I won't take up your time any longer with any smart quips or funny jokes. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll see everyone in the finale.

It was a difficult morning already. Robotnik had his 5th cup of coffee in the past 2 hours. He had a very restless sleep. The most he could manage was 3 hours of him waking up every half hour from random noises that the mobile lab made. He paced the lab as he aggressively argued with himself on what he should do.

The practical side of him told him that he should get rid of Stone. Fire him for insubordination or something along those lines. Get him as far away as he could. He would set up randomized passwords with letters from other languages, both dead and alive. He could force himself back into isolation and go through thousands more assistants until he was either assassinated or put into retirement. He could go back to having a very dull, very organized, very _normal_ life without anyone getting close to him.

But another part of his brain and his heart, as ignored as it was, told him no. He, even if he didn’t believe so, deserved some sort of happiness that couldn’t be brought from building machines and yelling at those who opposed them. He deserves someone that could make him smile because they were just there, not because they said something he thought was foolish. (Ok, maybe the latter could happen as well).

 _You don’t even know if he likes you,_ a voice said in his mind. “You never know until you try,” the doctor muttered in response.

_Ok, let’s take in the small chance that he might like you. You basically stalked him. You honestly think he’ll take you in after that?_

“No, and if he does, I’ll fire him and send him to get a psychological test done to see if he has any brain damage.”

_Oh please, you’re too desperate to even consider doing that._

“You do realize that I _just_ considered it, right?”

_…_

_Touche._

“Now, he should be arriving in about 3 minutes, if my readings are correct.”

“Who should be arriving?” The foreign voice startled Robotnik so much that he let out a high-pitched squeak. He turned around in an instant and saw the man he was both dreading and very happy to see.

“Daniel,” he whispered, seeing a flash of hesitation pass onto Stone’s face before it was covered up by his usual neutral expression.

“Doctor.”

They stood there, looking at each other. It felt like years had passed by as they stared. Robotnik could swear he could see Stone’s beard grow as, finally, the doctor walked over to his agent.

“We…” Robotnik took a second to breathe before he continued. “We need…to have a talk. About…us.”

Stone nodded. Up close, the doctor could see the foundation that Stone used to cover up his bags. It made his heart hurt as he desperately tried to fight the urge to wipe it away. Instead, he backed away and brought out his bed with a swipe of his hand.

“Sit,” he ordered. Stone followed his order and looked up in time to see Robotnik slide over to him in his own chair.

Again, silence. For a man whose brain was a constant swirl of thoughts, it was both a comfort and a curse for Robotnik when he couldn’t figure out what to say to start the conversation.

“How long have you known?” Stone asked, looking down at his hands.

“Longer than a year now.”

“How?”

“Portal let’s play.”

Stone snorted. “Why am I not surprised?”

Robotnik laughed quietly. “I just enjoy robots, Stone.”

“Daniel.” Stone looked up at him. “We’re having this conversation as adults, not coworkers, so…call me Daniel.”

Robotnik nodded. “Alright, Daniel.”

The agent had a curious smile on his face before he responded with “Ivan.”

Ivo threw his head back and laughed. Eventually, Daniel joined in. The tension in the air disappeared as they laughed at something that only they would understand.

“That was a horrible name choice,” Daniel teased.

“It was all I could think of!” Ivo confessed.

“You only changed one letter and added two more to the end of your name!”

“How did you even figure out my name? I never gave you clearance to it.”

“In the multiple times you’ve had to pledge not to use your robots to not attack anyone, I’ve learned your first name is Ivo.”

“Ah, of course. How could I forget?”

They smiled at each other. They could have ended the conversation there, pretend nothing happened. But they couldn’t, and they both knew that.

“Daniel, I have to confess something.”

“You’ve installed cameras and microphones into my house and subscribed to my YouTube channel?”

Ivo hung his head down low, which answered Daniel’s question.

“If I explain my actions, will you listen?” Ivo mumbled. “You don’t have to forgive me, but please just listen.”

Daniel sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Go ahead.”

Ivo sat up, putting his hands in his lap. He took a few seconds to figure out what he would say. Finally, he took in a deep breath, let it out, and began.

“As you know, you are the longest working assistant I’ve had.” Daniel nodded. “In the time I’ve had you around, I’ve grown close to you. That is a very high compliment, I can assure you of that.” The agent sat up, a ghost of a proud smile on his face.

“Yet our closeness has unlocked a part of me that I’ve desperately tried to contain. Whenever I see something that I want or that I believe I deserve, I become obsessed over it. I attempt to do whatever I can to have it.”

Ivo looked at the other now, hopelessness apparent in his eyes. “I’ve had this same obsession over you for a while. I can’t even remember when it started, but it became more evident after I found your YouTube. I couldn’t even see myself going down this path until it was already too late.

“I never meant for this to happen.” Tears began to spill from the doctor’s eyes, a shock to both men. “I infected your life with the disgusting virus I am. I put in cameras in your house under the pretense of making sure you wouldn’t give out any information about me, yet now I see I put them to watch you in your own home. I disrespected your privacy by going through your videos and trying to learn as much as I could about you. I’ve violated your trust by pretending to be someone else so we could talk after work hours.”

“I’m sorry,” Ivo sobbed, grabbing Daniel’s jacket and leaning into the man. “I’m so sorry.”

Daniel was stunned. The man he admired and respected, a man he thought was impervious to all things emotional, a man that was practically invincible, was now crying into his chest and admitting that he stalked him. Minutes passed before Daniel moved to wipe his face. (He had apparently been crying, which he didn’t notice until he looked down at Ivo.)

“I don’t forgive you for what you’ve done,” he said in a raspy voice.

“I know,” Ivo replied, sounding defeated.

“You’ve hurt my trust.”

“I know.”

“You _stalked_ me, Ivo.”

“I know.”

Daniel sighed. “But I want to make this work between us.”

Ivo’s eyebrows furrowed as he sat up slowly. “What do you mean?”

A blush covered the agent’s face as he looked up at Ivo. “If I’m being honest, I’ve had feelings for you for a while. It’s such a relief to know that you feel the same.”

Robotnik stood up, almost tripping over the chair as he backed away. “No, you can’t. You shouldn’t.” 

Stone shrugged his shoulders as he gave a brief smile. “But I do.”

“How?” Robotnik yelled, causing both men to become silent for a heartbeat. “How could you love a monster?” he whispered.

Stone stood up, cautiously walking over to the doctor. “Ivo, you’re not a monster.”

“Yes, I am,” the older man snapped. “I can’t function like a normal person because my emotional side is practically dead, I humiliate others around me because it makes me feel better about myself, I make machines and _kill_ people with them. How am I not a monster?”

Stone carefully placed a hand on Robotnik’s shoulder. When the other man didn’t move away (he did wince, which made the agent frown slightly), Stone put a hand on Robotnik’s cheek. He forced the other to look at him.

“You aren’t a monster, Ivo.” The doctor opened his mouth as he was about to retort but a quick glare from the agent told him to shut up. 

“I know it’s difficult for you to connect to people, mostly because of your past. I don’t know much, but I still know that what happened to you was horrible. You’ve had to keep any emotion you had under lock and key, which has caused you to eventually lose connection to your feelings. That’s not good, but we can try to fix that.

“You humiliating other people is definitely something you need to work on as well. I don’t like it when you tell me that I’m an imbecile or constantly being “threatened” because you can replace me with a toaster since it has more IQ than me.”

Ivo smiled for a fraction of a second, even as his face fell. He knew he made degrading comments like that to everyone around him and, unfortunately, Daniel had taken the brunt of all the insults. It was just his response to anyone that seemed to get close to him. Better to attack first and leave lasting wounds than let your guard down and get hurt instead.

“What about all the people I’ve hurt?” Ivo questioned. “What about those innocent lives I’ve taken when there needed to be none? You can’t possibly justify that.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “You do realize you’re saying that to a trained government agent. An agent that has learned how to use every weapon that I can both legally and illegally possess at any time. An agent that has also had to learn how to operate _your_ own machinery and participate in many missions, some of which included capturing or killing enemy troops, cultists, and opposing figures.”

This time, Ivo did smile. “I guess there is a certain irony to that.”

“I’ve seen you, Ivo. Every time you hurt the enemy, you have a pained smile. You don’t enjoy hurting people, let alone killing them. You might have a part of you that says so, a part that contains all of your inner hatred towards humanity for everything its done to you. Yet I can see that you don’t want anyone to get hurt. You don’t want anyone to feel the same suffering that you had to go through when you were a child.

“That’s why you constantly upgrade your robots to be more accurate, more precise. You don’t want it to accidentally shoot a civilian or one of your men. You take apart any robot if it doesn’t reach a 99% accuracy average on the 1,000 tests you do on it. You will purposefully destroy blueprints of machines that don’t reach that accuracy when you remake it for the 50th time for the sole reason of not allowing anyone, enemy or otherwise, to use such a faulty design.”

Daniel shook the doctor slightly. “You aren’t a monster for participating in the fights the United States is a part of. You regret your actions every time things don’t go to plan. You try your hardest to do the best that you possibly can. You aren’t a monster, Ivo. I can promise you that much.”

Ivo sighed as he pulled the man into a hug. Daniel hesitated for a second before returning it, awkwardly patting the older man on the back.

“What are we going to do?” Ivo murmured.

Daniel sighed as he put his chin on the doctor’s shoulder. “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

Ivo pondered the question until he tapped on Daniel’s shoulder blade. “First things first, I have to get myself evaluated by a doctor.”

“So yourself?” Daniel quipped.

Ivo chuckled, shaking his head. “An actual doctor. I haven’t been to one in years. I need to see if I’ve developed any mental illnesses within the decades I’ve avoided getting any sort of medical attention. I also need to get some sort of check-up in general.”

Daniel nodded before snorting. Ivo hummed, curious about what made the agent laugh during such a serious moment.

“We could get couples therapy.”

Ivo sputtered before exclaiming “We’re not even a couple, Daniel!”

The agent laughed. “Not yet.”

Ivo sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t believe you should get your hopes up, Daniel. I have a lot to work on before I can call you my boyfriend.”

“So you admit that you’d ask me out?”

“I…” The flustered doctor closed his mouth as he felt a blush cover his cheeks. Daniel pulled away from the hug enough to fully look at the man.

“I’m only teasing you.” He hung his head as he smiled at the ground. “It’s still nice to know you still want to make this work out.”

Ivo smiled, leaning down to touch foreheads with the younger man. “Of course I do. You’re the most important person in my life, Daniel. But I need to work on myself before I can commit myself to any relationship, romantic or otherwise.”

The agent nodded. “I should probably do the same as you.”

“You don’t have to _just_ for me.”

“I know, but I just want to make sure everything is fine with me before I get into a relationship with you, too.”

Ivo smiled. He placed his hand under his agent’s chin, lifting it up and staring into the man’s eyes. They were perfect, a gorgeous blend of smoky quartz and kobicha. Ivo could feel himself fall even more in love with Daniel as he stared into his eyes. “I’m sorry for all of this.”

Daniel smiled softly. “Let’s stop with the apologies and figure out ways to better ourselves in the future.”

Ivo nodded. “Let’s just have this moment first. Please?” he added, feeling worry build in his gut. He didn’t want to pressure the man into doing anything against his will just for his sake.

Daniel’s smile grew as he stood up on his toes to kiss the doctor’s nose. “We can have this moment.”

Ivo’s face flushed as he stared down at Daniel before tucking his head into the crook of the man’s neck. There was so much to work on. So, _so_ much. Decades of neglect, abuse, self-hatred, bottling up emotions, lashing out at others, the list goes on. Yet here, in the arms of the only person who _hadn’t_ run from him after knowing the ugly truth, he hoped. He yearned. He dreamed of a future where he could be better than who he was right now, and he knew, as Daniel Stone rocked him back and forth to soothe him further, with this man by his side, he would be able to achieve that future sooner rather than later.


	10. Healing Takes Time, But It's Worth It In The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivo heals and Daniel couldn't be more happy for the man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. The end. I honestly can't believe that it's over. It hurts to have to write the end, but I'm so proud of the way it's turned out. It's amazing to see how much attention this fic has garnered from the time I've been writing it. I thank every single one of you for all the nice comments everyone's left. 
> 
> Thank you for letting me write this. Thank you for supporting me while I wrote this. And thank you for wanting to stick around until the very end. I love all of you guys so much 💗
> 
> And now, onto the chapter

It had been 2 years since they had promised each other that they would better themselves. 2 years of therapy, taking prescribed medication, and slow but steady progress into a relationship. Daniel was patient as Ivo warmed up to the physical attention that he wanted to give to the older man. It took a lot of patience, but he knew that the doctor was just trying to get used to the fact that he was receiving positive attention. It hurt the agent’s heart to know that in all his years, Ivo never knew that a hand on his shoulder or a hand cupping his cheek _wasn’t_ supposed to be threatening in any way.

They spent the rest of that day alone, talking about ways that they can try to become a better person than who they already were. They spoke of fears and taboo subjects they should avoid, as well as favorite foods and interests that they shared. They spoke of family it was very difficult for Ivo to talk about his “family”, but Daniel said he didn’t have to continue if he didn’t want to). They spent the rest of the day talking about whatever came to mind. It was a relaxing day, even if many tears were shed.

The next day was spent researching doctors close to them. The therapist that Ivo had made an appointment with had cancelled the appointment for reasons she wouldn’t disclose. Upon further research, Ivo found out that she was homophobic, as was seen in her multiple Facebook posts about the topic.

Back onto the internet they went. After about a month of researching, they went to multiple doctors, psychologists, and therapists until they found ones that would take them. They visited Dr. Jeff Grizzly every month for a check-up while Ivo visited Dr. David Nicholas biweekly for sessions of clinical psychology. Last but not least was their therapists.

They found great irony in the fact that their therapists were dating. (They didn’t know if that was technically legal, but they would be hypocrites if they made a fuss about that). They worked in offices close to each other, which was very convenient for the men. Ivo was paired with a stylish nonbinary named Hannah Strout and Daniel was with a still-confused person named Selina Ortiz.

The two people were amazing when it came to making sure that the men were comfortable with talking about themselves. It took a bit of effort on Hannah’s part to crack Ivo open, but when he did he felt like a new person. He shared his deepest secrets, ones that he never told anyone. He talked about his childhood and how much it traumatized him throughout the years. He talked about things he kept from everyone, even himself.

Daniel could tell that this is just what the doctor needed. Ivo’s mood was improved, he had more energy, he was _actually_ getting a proper amount of sleep. He even started to treat everyone with more kindness, to the confusion of everyone else. Daniel couldn’t even count the number of times he was asked if Ivo was taking some type of class-A drug like heroin or cocaine. He laughed those questions off by saying that Ivo just had a change of heart. Everyone was still hesitant to accept that, but that was fine. It didn’t matter to Daniel what anyone thought, all that mattered was the fact that _Ivo was getting the help he needed and he was healing._

He shook his head when he heard his name being called. He looked up at Selina, who smiled back at him.

“I was asking what you thought about Hannah’s idea? About going to the Pride Parade that they’re hosting here?” Daniel beamed and slowly reached over to grab Ivo’s hand. It was the only thing that Ivo was ok, and it filled the agent’s heart to see him smile at the gesture instead of wince away.

“I think that’s an amazing idea,” Daniel replied, grinning at Ivo. The doctor nodded slowly.

“I agree. It sounds like a wonderful idea.” The men smiled at each other as Hannah scribbled something down on their notepad.

“Ok,” they mumbled before ripping off the sheet. “Here’s a store that sells pride flags that’s close by here. If you don’t want to go into the store, I’ve also written their website on the bottom.” They handed the paper to Daniel, who pocketed it immediately.

“We’ll check them out tomorrow,” Ivo said, rubbing his thumb against the back of Daniel’s hand.

Selina nodded, pushing their glasses back. “If you want to make clothes with the flags or clothes that have designs of your sexuality or something along those lines, you know where to find me.”

The men chuckled as they simultaneously looked down at the pins that Selina made them. Both had been gifted a bisexual flag pin, but Ivo’s in the shape of a gear while Daniel’s was in the shape of a coffee mug. 

“We’ll come to you if we have any ideas like that,” Daniel responded with a smile.

“I do actually have an idea for a coat with the colors of the bisexual flag if you want it,” Ivo mentioned.

Selina sat up and nodded. “Send me the design and I’ll start on it tonight.”

Hannah put a hand on Selina’s shoulder. “Calm down, dear. Don’t overwork yourself.” Selina blushed and nodded, fiddling with their promise ring Hannah gave them. Hannah smiled softly at the other, kissing them tenderly before turning their attention back onto the men in front of them.

“Have you been taking your medication?” they asked the doctor. Ivo pulled out his bipolar medication, a diagnosis he had learned about a year and a half ago. Hannah nodded their approval.

“Good. Continue taking that at the time that Dr. Calliham told you to.” They looked at their watch before looking up at them once more. “I’m sorry, but that’s the end of our session. It was a pleasure seeing you guys once more.”

Ivo stood up first, as did Hannah. They shook hands, the doctor giving the other a grateful smile. 

“Thank you for doing this joint session with us,” he said. Hannah smiled and nodded.

“It’s my pleasure, doctor.”

They continued saying their goodbyes until they finally had to leave. Hand-in-hand, the men walked out of the building and got into Daniel’s car. They drove in silence, simply appreciating the other’s company.

Soon, they pulled up in front of their house. It hadn’t been tricky for them to live together. Robotnik had convinced some of the higher government officials that Stone _had_ to live with him in case someone tried to assassinate him. The officials eyed each other but held their tongues. Everyone knew that Robotnik and Stone were in a relationship, yet nobody wanted to receive the wrath that the doctor would present them if they ever said “No” about them being together.

Daniel got his keys out and opened the door for Ivo, smiling gently. Ivo nodded and walked through the door. He stretched and practically collapsed on top of the couch.

“It’s been a long day,” he mumbled into the couch cushion. Daniel laughed and sat on the armrest. He leaned down, playing with Ivo’s hair. The man hummed pleasantly as he relaxed.

“Well, it’s not over yet. Remember what you promised we could do today?”

Ivo groaned. “Can’t we do it some other time?”

Daniel’s smile faded a bit as he looked down at the doctor. “Ivo, you promised.”

The older man sighed before looking up. “Yeah, I did promise.” He got up with a groan as Daniel walked over to his set up and began getting ready for his stream.

The agent had recently started streaming during those times when they didn’t have any missions to complete. He had gotten more subscribers on both YouTube and Twitch, which he appreciated. The money he got from his videos and subscriptions was given back to the community, though. He would donate everything to local charities, never wanting to keep any for himself. It was thoughtful actions like that that made Ivo’s heart clench in admiration.

The doctor walked over to the second chair that was by Daniel. He sat down in it, slowly becoming more and more nervous.

“Do you think this will go over well?” he whispered to Daniel as he finished making his preparations. Daniel hummed, nodding. It wasn’t much of an answer, but Ivo couldn’t complain. He had done that multiple times to Daniel. This was him getting a taste of his own medicine.

The man fidgeted with whatever he could get his hands on. He was zoning himself out so he wouldn’t have to know the exact moment that Daniel would call out to him. Eventually, he felt Daniel put his hand over his own.

“I have someone very special that I want everyone to meet,” Daniel said to the camera. Ivo gulped as he rolled his chair next to Daniel. He shyly waved to the camera, embarrassment clear on his face. He didn’t know why he was behaving like this. Maybe it’s just the fact he’s being watched by so many people that can see him but that he can’t see? Or maybe it’s because Daniel is going to introduce him as...

“This here is Ivo, my boyfriend.”

Bingo.

Ivo’s eyes were pulled to the chat, which had stopped moving for a moment. It seemed to last forever until a flood of “Congratulations!” and “Aww” and more supportive comments filled it. Ivo let out a sigh of relief as he looked back up at Daniel. The agent gave the doctor a reassuring smile before turning back to the camera.

“Yeah, he’s my boyfriend. We’ve been dating for…” he paused, trying to remember the date. “How long have we been dating, Ivo?”

“1 year, 1 month, 17 days, 9 hours, 35 minutes, and 46 seconds, and 76 milliseconds.”

Daniel burst out laughing, causing Ivo to smile. “Of course you remember the _exact_ time you asked me out.”

“How could I not? It was a moment that changed my entire life?”

Daniel blushed, rolling his eyes. “Oh shut up, you romantic sap.”

Ivo smiled. “Make me.”

“Is that a challenge I hear?”

“Maybe it is. What are you going to do abo-”

Ivo was cut off when Daniel leaned down and kissed him. He was shocked (of course he was, this was their first-ever kiss), but he slowly leaned into Daniel, kissing the man back. It was heavenly as the agent wrapped his arms around the older man. It didn’t matter that almost a thousand people were watching them do something so person right in front of them. It didn’t matter the number of messages that were being sent into chat that had barely a second to pop up before being buried under a sea of more messages. It didn’t matter that the armrest was digging into Ivo's stomach. 

The rest of the night could be spent playing video games or watching movies or doing something else, but right now, in the arms of someone he’s worked with and loved for so long, Ivo ignored what could happen in the future. The present, the hug, the kiss, Daniel himself, _that_ was all that mattered.


End file.
